codicil, as it appears, are both in the handwriting of the widow, who acted as an amanuensis not only for her husband but for the attorney. That fact does not in my mind produce suspicion; but I do not doubt that it has produced all this suspicion in the mind of the claimant. The attorney who advised Sir Joseph should have known better.'
'It is one of those cases,' continued Graham, 'in which the sufferer should be protected by the very fact of her own innocence. No lawyer should consent to take up the cudgels against her.'
'I am afraid that she will not escape persecution from any such professional chivalry,' said the judge.
'All that is moonshine,' said Mr. Furnival.
'And moonshine is a very pretty thing if you were not too much afraid of the night air to go and look at it. If the matter be as you all say, I do think that any gentleman would disgrace himself by lending a hand against her.'
'Upon my word, sir, I fully agree with you,' said Sir Peregrine, bowing to Felix Graham over his glass.
'I will take permission to think, Sir Peregrine,' said Mr. Furnival, that you would not agree with Mr. Graham if you had given to the matter much deep consideration.'
'I have not had the advantage of a professional education,' said Sir Peregrine, again bowing, and on this occasion addressing himself to the lawyer; 'but I cannot see how any amount of learning should alter my views on such a subject.'
'Truth and honour cannot be altered by any professional arrangements,' said Graham; and then the conversation turned away from Lady Mason, and directed itself to those great corrections of legal reform which had been debated during the past autumn.
The Orley Farm Case, though in other forms and different language, was being discussed also in the drawing-room. 'I have not seen much of her,' said Sophia Furnival, who by some art had usurped the most prominent part in the conversation, 'but what I did see I liked much. She was at The Cleeve when I was staying there, if you remember, Mrs. Orme.' Mrs. Orme said that she did remember.
'And we went over to Orley Farm. Poor lady! I think everybody ought to notice her under such circumstances. Papa, I know, would move heaven and earth for her if he could.'
'I cannot move the heaven or the earth either,' said Lady Staveley; 'but if I thought that my calling on her would be any satisfaction to her'
'It would, Lady Staveley,' said Mrs. Orme. 'It would be a great satisfaction to her. I cannot tell you how warmly I regard her, nor how perfectly Sir Peregrine esteems her.'
'We will drive over there next week, Madeline.'
