Did you
mean the Mrs. Minchin who was tried for murder, when you were talking
about your plot?"
Langholm experienced an unforeseen shock from head to heel; he could
only nod.
"He was the judge who tried her!" the schoolgirl said with pardonable
pride.
A lady joined them as they spoke.
"Do you really mean that that is Mr. Justice Gibson, who tried Mrs.
Minchin at the Old Bailey last November?"
"Yes--my father," said the proud young girl.
"What a very singular thing! How do you do, Mr. Langholm? I didn't see
it was you."
And Langholm found himself shaking hands with the aquiline lady to whom
he had talked so little at the Upthorpe dinner-party; she took her
revenge by giving him only the tips of her fingers now, and by looking
deliberately past him at Rachel and her judge.
CHAPTER XVI
A MATCH FOR MRS. VENABLES
That was absolutely all that happened at the Uniackes' garden-party.
There was no scene, no scandal, no incident whatsoever beyond an
apparently mutual recognition between Mrs. Steel and Mr. Justice Gibson.
Of this there were not half-a-dozen witnesses, all of whom were given
immediate reason to suppose that either they or the pair in question had
made a mistake; for nothing could have surpassed the presence of mind
and the kindness of heart with which Sir Baldwin Gibson chatted to the
woman whom he had tried for her life within the year.
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