There was a dead silence at this crucial question—a silence that you could feel was the result of a deep-laid conspiracy—and all the ladies smiled.
Fortunately I was not caught; nor was I even taken aback; my presence of mind did not desert me in this my hour of need; and I said, in the most natural tone I could assume,—
"Yes, I was sure that would be the first question you would ask me when I had the pleasure of meeting this brilliant company, as you knew I must pass through Chester Station; so I popped my head out of the window and asked the porter which horse had won. He told me the Judge had won by a length, Chaplain was a good second, and Sheriff a bad third."
The squire took his defeat like a man.
I was reminded during the evening of a singular case of bigamy—a double bigamy—that came before me at Derby, in which the simple story was that an unfortunate couple had got married twenty years before the time I speak of, and that they had the good luck to find out they did not care for one another the week after they were married. It would have been luckier if they had found it out a week before instead of a week after; but so it was, and in the circumstances they did the wisest thing, probably, that they could. They separated, and never met again until they met in the dock before me—a trysting-place not of their own choosing, and more strange than a novelist would dream of.
But there they were, and this was the story of their lives:—
The man, after the separation, lived for some time single, then formed a companionship, and, as he afterwards heard that his wife had got married to some one else, thought he would follow her example.
Now, if a Judge punished immorality, here was something to punish; but the law leaves that to the ecclesiastical or some other jurisdiction. The Judge has but to deal with the breach of the law, and to punish in accordance with the requirements of the injury to society—not even to the injury of the individual.
I made inquiries of the police and others, as the prisoners had pleaded guilty, and found that all the parties—the four persons—had been living respectable and hard-working lives. There was no fault whatever to be found with their conduct. They were respected by all who knew them.
I then asked how it was found out at last that these people, living quietly and happily, had been previously married.