The Bench drew together, with the Clerk intervening.
Mr. Bazalguet, double-chinned and comfortable squire, was disturbed by
this case. What troubled him was that Ingram had not been straightforward.
What was this dismissal of a servant? He knew, and therefore he asked the
question. Fortnaby knew also, but didn't intend to say. Everybody, indeed,
knew. Romance appeals to us all in diverse ways; and it was actually
romance which settled Clyde's romantic affair.
Fortnaby, Maximilian Fortnaby, had been a schoolmaster, had succeeded to
an estate at forty, and retired. He, with his keen face and trim whiskers,
leaning his head on his hand, thus spoke in undertones, and carried the
day. "The case is clear. The young man's taught himself tongues, and has
poetry. He's been taught other things, too, and has got some of them
wrongly. One thing he ought to learn is that to relieve your feelings is
not the way to help the oppressed. He's set himself up for a champion, and
tongues have got to work. I should give him three months." Mr. Bazalguet
looked at the Clerk, who said it was a bad case. Mr. Ingram was a
magistrate and--the maximum was two years. The third magistrate saw his
way to impressing himself,--"Make it six months," he said.
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