Page:The unhallowed harvest (1917).djvu/139

134 With assumed gravity the judge commanded the prisoner to stand up. Barry rose, looking somewhat bewildered. The comedy was being played rather too rapidly for him to take it completely in as it progressed.

"Barry Malleson," said the judge, "the court accepts your plea of guilty. Your offense is aggravated beyond that of the other defendants, in that, by your own confession, you have offered money to a proletarian, by means of which she might have placed herself on a par with the four hundred of this city. Nor are there any extenuating circumstances in your case. The sentence of the court therefore is that you also pay a visit to Mrs. John Bradley; that you undergo an imprisonment in her house, for a period of at least forty minutes, that you come away with a whole purse and a whole heart; and you are hereby paroled in the custody of Miss Jane Chichester until this sentence is complied with."

"And I'll see," said Miss Chichester, "that Barry doesn't break his parole."

It was most inconsequential foolery, but it served its purpose. The strain was relaxed. The atmosphere was cleared. Mrs. Farrar and Mrs. Bosworth were relieved of their apprehensions, and Ruth was once more at ease. New subjects of conversation were introduced, and the dinner progressed to a happy and harmonious close.

If Mr. Farrar had expected that either Judge Bosworth or Westgate would show any lack of friendliness or loss of cordiality toward him, he was agreeably disappointed. There appeared to be no change in the attitude of either of them. So far as Westgate was concerned he still had a most kindly feeling for the rector. The two men had been on terms of more than usual intimacy. They were nearly of the same age, possessed of similar cultured tastes, endowed with an equal degree of intellectuality. It is true that while