MY AUNT'S GREAT POLICE CASE. 231 



The Policeman helps me out. Without yielding an inch 

 of his vantage ground, so as to be prepared against any 

 attempt at a surprise on the part of my Aunt or myself, he 

 says, austerely, " He ain't come yet." 



" O, indeed ! When will he come ? " 



" Don't know." 



The oracle shuts his mouth, and is silent. 



*' And we shall have to wait ever so long." This my Aunt 

 whispers to me, nervously indignant, "Among these people! 

 Good gracious ! I'm sure we shall catch something 

 horrid ! " 



I fear at this minute that there will be a return of her 

 Ramsgate hysterical state. I feel too that the atmosphere 

 and the excitement are beginning to tell upon me. If this 

 case should be adjourned, and then indefinitely prolonged 

 (I don't see how it could be, but once in a law case one 

 never knows the result), I foresee a return of all my old 

 symptoms, and the necessity of taking myself to some 

 medicinal course in order to restore " My Health." 



A door is open on our left, and within I see a desk, two 

 Clerks, and a Police-sergeant, or some official higher 

 than an ordinary Policeman, engaged in looking over a large 

 ledger. 



As an ingenious way of getting out of the crowd, I suggest 

 our stepping into this office. 



"Tell them you're a Barrister," my Aunt whispers. I 

 don't see what good this would do ; and if I did tell them, in 

 a place like a Police-Court where everybody is suspected 

 and suspicious, how am I to prove it .^ 



