innocent spirit; thoughts of flight, thoughts even of suicide, came and

went before him; and still the barrister patiently waited, and still the

artist groped in vain for any form of words, however insignificant.

'It's a breach of promise case,' he said at last, in a low voice. 'I--I

am threatened with a breach of promise case.' Here, in desperate quest

of inspiration, he made a clutch at his beard; his fingers closed upon

the unfamiliar smoothness of a shaven chin; and with that, hope and

courage (if such expressions could ever have been appropriate in the

case of Pitman) conjointly fled. He shook Michael roughly. 'Wake up!'

he cried, with genuine irritation in his tones. 'I cannot do it, and you

know I can't.'

'You must excuse my friend,' said Michael; 'he's no hand as a narrator

of stirring incident. The case is simple,' he went on. 'My friend is

a man of very strong passions, and accustomed to a simple, patriarchal

style of life. You see the thing from here: unfortunate visit to Europe,

followed by unfortunate acquaintance with sham foreign count, who has a

lovely daughter. Mr Thomas was quite carried away; he proposed, he was

accepted, and he wrote--wrote in a style which I am sure he must

regret today. If these letters are produced in court, sir, Mr Thomas's

character is gone.'

'Am I to understand--' began Gideon.

'My dear sir,' said the Australian emphatically, 'it isn't possible to

136

The Wrong Box