"Well, I reported the meeting to you, and asked for instructions."
"That is the very thing which I object to—making reports without sufficient grounds. I should decline to act again under similar circumstances."
"That you would do so, I have no doubt; but that you should do so, I have some."
"I am right, young sir, as well in my grammar as in my view of the case; ought is the word you should have used, to have properly expressed what you intended."
The chief was nettled. He was not quite certain that the R.M. was not right, and merely replied:
"Perhaps so, sir; but it really was not of Lindley Murray I was thinking at the time."
The magistrate was softened. He felt that he had been sparring rather sharply with a lad not much more than one-third of his age.
"Well, I really beg your pardon," he said; "I did not intend to be so sharp."
"Granted," said the chief, laughing; for he was not an ill-tempered fellow. "But here we are at my box; come in and have some breakfast, and I'll drive you to petty-sessions after."
"Thank you very much, I'll take breakfast; for I came away in a horrid fuss without saying a word as to when I should be back again. I will not trespass upon you, however, to do more than you have already done in the driving way. I had some fears when we started that we should have breakfasted at dinner, some time this evening, after a coroner's inquest. But this is better."