Before the Bench 147 



Up in the justice-room the seedy Clerk's clerk is 

 leaning out of the window and conversing with a man 

 below who has come along with a barrow-load of 

 vegetables from his allotment. Some boys are 

 spinning tops under the pillars. On the stone steps 

 that lead up to the hall a young mother sits nursing 

 her infant ; she is waiting to 'swear 1 the child. In 

 the room itself several gipsy-looking men and women 

 lounge in a corner. At one end is a broad table and 

 some comfortable chairs behind it. In front of each 

 chair, on the table, two sheets of clean foolscap have 

 been placed on a sheet of blotting-paper. These and 

 a variety of printed forms were taken from the clumsy 

 box that is now open. 



At last there is a slight stir as a group is seen to 

 emerge from the inn, and the magistrates take their 

 seats. An elderly man who sits by the chair cocks 

 his felt hat on the back of his head : the clerical 

 magistrate very tenderly places his beaver in safety 

 on the broad mantelpiece, that no irreverent sleeve 

 may ruffle its gloss : several others who rarely do 

 more than nod assent range themselves on the flanks ; 

 one younger man who looks as if he understood 

 horses pulls out his toothpick. The chairman, stout 

 and gouty, seizes a quill and sternly looks over the 

 list of cases. 



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