246 THE HAUGHTYSHIRE HUNT. 



Miss Turnover, to say that I have certain evidence in my 

 possession here, in relation to the matter." 



Tottie ' tumbled,' and immediately changed front. " I'm 

 thirty-two," she said sullenly. 



" Ah ; and so, when my learned friend was referring to 

 you as a young girl deceived and abandoned by a heartless 

 man — my client — he was, as a fact, speaking of the love 

 affairs of a lady of thirty-two and a young man of twenty- 

 four, eh?" 



" How can the plaintiff' say what Mr. Binkie's age is ? " 

 protested Mr. Silky energetically. 



" I am putting it to her now," replied Eonald calmly, 

 " and I will formally prove the defendant's age, if you 

 wish it." 



Mr. Silky simmered down again, as Mr. Justice Smotherum 

 dipped the wrong end of his pen into the ink, and wrote down 

 nothing with the nib. 



" Can you produce any letters — other than those you have 

 already shown us — which passed between you and the 

 defendant '? " asked Eonald. 



" Oh, Halgy never was one for doing much writing," 

 answered the lady promptly. Mr. Justice Smotherum tickled 

 his red nose with the inky end of his pen, thereby producing 

 a pleasing, if wholly unexpected, effect. 



" Rouge et Noir," murmured a flippant Junior, fixing 

 his glass into his eye, in order the better to surv,ey his 

 Lordship. 



" Then, I may take it from you. Miss Turnover, may I, that 

 no such letters exist ? " 



"Oh no, we had very httle letter-writing," replied the fair 



