No doubt he would have
made a laughing-stock of that, but it would not have been as bad as the
other.'
'Poor thing,' said Lady Merrifield; 'it was a trying retribution for
schoolgirl folly and want of conscientiousness. I should think she was
a sadder and a wiser woman.'
'He must have overdone it,' said Mr. Mohun, 'he is a vulgar fellow, and
always does so; but, as Reginald says, the only available defence was
to enhance the folly and sentiment of the girls; but of course the
judge charged the other way--
'Entirely,' said Lord Rotherwood, 'he brought Dolly rather well out of
it, saying that as he understood it, a young girl who had seen a needy
connection assisted from her home might think herself justified in
corresponding with him, and even in diverting to his use money left in
her charge, when it was probable that it would not be required for the
original object. He did not say it was right, but it was an error of
judgment by no means implying swindling--in fact. He disposed of Miss
Hacket in the same way--foolish, sentimental, unscrupulous, but not to
that degree. Girls might be silly enough in all conscience, but not so
as to commit forgery or perjury. That was the gist of it, and happily
the jury were of the same opinion.'
'Happily? Well, I suppose so,' said Mr. Mohun, with a certain
sorrowfulness of tone, into which his little daughter entered.
'I say, Rotherwood,' exclaimed the colonel, as the town clock's two
strokes for the half-hour echoed loudly, 'if you mean to catch the
4.
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