broke forth again at once. 'Who told my father? Who dared to tell him? Could it have been you?'
'No, it was not me,' said the Judge; 'although—to be quite frank with you, and after I had seen and warned you—it might have been me. I believe it was Glenkindie.'
'That shrimp!' cried Archie.
'As you say, that shrimp,' returned my lord; 'although really it is scarce a fitting mode of expression for one of the senators of the College of Justice. We were hearing the parties in a long, crucial case, before the fifteen; Creech was moving at some length for an infeftment; when I saw Glenkindie lean forward to Hermiston with his hand over his mouth and make him a secret communication. No one could have guessed its nature from your father: from Glenkindie, yes, his malice sparked out of him a little grossly. But your father, no. A man of granite. The next moment he pounced upon Creech.
82
