Their case is well got up and very strong,"
said Mr. Oldfield, regretfully.
"Well, but you are a lawyer, and you have always beaten them hitherto."
"I had law and fact on my side. It is not so now. To be frank, Lady
Bassett, I don't see what I can do but watch the case, on the chance of
some error or illegality. It is very hard to fight a case when you
cannot put your client forward--and I suppose that would not be safe.
How unfortunate that you have no children!"
"Children! How could they help us?"
"What a question! How could Richard Bassett move the Court if he was
not the heir at law?"
After a long conference Mr. Oldfield returned to town to see what he
could do in the way of procrastination, and Lady Bassett promised to
leave no stone unturned to cure Sir Charles in the meantime. Mr.
Oldfield was to write immediately if any fresh step was taken.
When Mr. Oldfield was gone, Lady Bassett pondered every word he had
said, and, mild as she was, her rage began to rise against her
husband's relentless enemy. Her wits worked, her eyes roved in that
peculiar half-savage way I have described. She became intolerably
restless; and any one acquainted with her sex might see that some
strange conflict was going on in her troubled mind.
Every now and then she would come and cling to her husband, and cry
over him; and that seemed to still the tumult of her soul a little.
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