"Forty shillings, or a month!"

"Oh, come--I say!" Lord Rattley murmured.

The Admiral, glancing to right and left, saw, too, that three or four
of his colleagues were lifting their eyebrows in polite protest.

"I--I beg your pardon, gentlemen, for not consulting you! Correct
me, if you will. I would point out, however, that in addition to the
offence with which he is charged, this fellow was guilty of violent
and disgusting language, and, further, of resisting the police."

But his colleagues made no further protest, and Thomas Edwards,
having but two coppers to his name, was conducted below to the
cellarage, there to await transference to the County Jail.

"Selina Trudgian!"

The Admiral, viewing the young couple as they stood sheepishly before
him, commanded Selina to state her complaint as briefly as possible,
avoiding tears.

But this was beyond her.

"He came home drunk, your Worship," she sobbed, twisting her
handkerchief.

"I didn'," corrected her husband.

"He came home d-drunk, your Worship . . . he c-came home d-drunk--"