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It was late when that second day’s work was over, and when Mrs Orme and Lady Mason again found themselves in the Hamworth carriage. They had sat in court from ten in the morning till past seven, with a short interval of a few...

On the following morning, before breakfast, Felix Graham and Augustus Staveley prepared themselves for the labours of the coming day by a walk into the country; for even at Birmingham, by perseverance, a walk into the country may be attained, — and very pretty country it...

‘I am well aware, Mr Staveley, that you are one of those gentlemen who amuse themselves by frequently saying such things to girls. I had learned your character in that respect before I had been in the house two days.’ ‘Then, Miss Furnival, you learned...

And now the judge was there on the bench, the barristers and the attorneys were collected, the prisoner* was seated in their presence, and the trial was begun. As is usual in cases of much public moment, when a person of mark is...

Sir Peregrine, after the hour that he had spent with his daughter-in-law, — that terrible hour during which Lady Mason had sat alone on the bed-side — returned to the library and remained there during the whole of the afternoon. It may be remembered that he had agreed...

Sir Peregrine Orme had gone up to London, had had his interview with Mr Round, and had failed. He had then returned home, and hardly a word on the subject had been spoken between him and Mrs Orme. Indeed little or nothing was now...

I trust that it is already perceived by all persistent novel readers that very much of the interest of this tale will be centred in the person of Lady Mason. Such educated persons, however, will probably be aware that she is not intended...

‘Upon my word I am very sorry,’ said the judge. ‘But what made him go off so suddenly? I hope there’s nobody ill at The Cleeve!’ And then the judge took his first spoonful of soup. ‘No, no; there is nothing of that sort,’ said...

The dinner on that day at The Cleeve was not very dull. Peregrine had some hopes that the idea of the marriage might be abandoned, and was at any rate much better disposed towards Lady Mason than he had been. He spoke to her,...

‘If you love the man, let him come.’ It was thus that the judge had declared to his daughter his opinion of what had better be done in that matter of Felix Graham. Then he had gone on to declare that he had...

I will now ask my readers to come with me up to London, in order that I may introduce them to the family of the Furnivals. We shall see much of the Furnivals before we reach the end of our present undertaking, and...

On the whole Mr Dockwrath was satisfied with the results of his trip to Groby Park, and was in a contented frame of mind as he was driven back to Leeds. No doubt it would have been better could he have persuaded Mr Mason...

It was all over now, and as Lucius had said to his mother, there was nothing left for them but to go and hide themselves. The verdict had reached him before his mother’s return, and on the moment of his hearing it he sat...

Felix Graham had plenty of nurses, but Madeline was not one of them. Augustus Staveley came home while the Alston doctor was still busy at the broken bones, and of course he would not leave his friend. He was one of those who had...

Lady Mason returned to The Cleeve after her visit to Mr Furnival’s chambers, and nobody asked her why she had been to London or whom she had seen. Nothing could be more gracious than the deference which was shown to her, and...

And now we will go back to Noningsby. On that evening Graham ate his pheasant with a relish although so many cares sat heavy on his mind, and declared, to Mrs Baker’s great satisfaction, that the cook had managed to preserve the bread sauce...

The house at Noningsby was now very quiet. All the visitors had gone, including even the Arbuthnots. Felix Graham and Sophia Furnival, that terrible pair of guests, had relieved Mrs Staveley of their presence; but, alas! the mischief they had done remained behind them....

It will be remembered that Mr Crabwitz was sent across from Lincoln’s Inn to Bedford Row to ascertain the present address of old Mr Round. ‘Mr Round is at Birmingham,’ he said, coming back. ‘Every one connected with the profession is at Birmingham, except —— ’... ‘The...

Going to Leicestershire was quite out of the question for young Orme at this period of his life, but going to London unfortunately was not so. He had become acquainted at Oxford with a gentleman of great skill in his peculiar line of life,...

‘She’s as sweet a temper, John, as ever stirred a lump of sugar in her tea,’ said Mrs Moulder to her brother, as they sat together over the fire in Great St Helen’s on that same evening, — after his return from Hamworth. ‘That she is, — and...

‘That letter you got this morning, my dear, was it not from Lady Mason?’ ‘It was from Lady Mason, father; they go on Thursday.’ ‘On Thursday; so soon as that.’ And then Sir Peregrine, who had asked the question, remained silent for a while. The...

‘I should have done my duty by you, Mr Mason, which those men have not, and you would at this moment have been the owner of Orley Farm.’ It will easily be known that these words were spoken by Mr Dockwrath, and that they were...

Groby Park is about seven miles from Leeds, in the direction of Bradford, and thither on the morning after the scene described in the last chapter Mr Dockwrath was driven in one of the gigs belonging to the Bull Inn. The park itself is...

In the mean time Sir Peregrine was sitting at home trying to determine in what way he should act under the present emergency, actuated as he was on one side by friendship and on the other by duty. For the first day or two — nay...

The day of the trial was now quickly coming on, and the London world, especially the world of lawyers, was beginning to talk much on the subject. Men about the Inns of Court speculated as to the verdict, offering to each other very confident...

On the following day Lady Mason made two visits, using her new vehicle for the first time. She would fain have walked had she dared; but she would have given terrible offence to her son by doing so. He had explained to her, and...

During these days Peregrine Orme — though he was in love up to his very chin, seriously in love, acknowledging this matter to himself openly, pulling his hair in the retirement of his bedroom, and resolving that he would do that which he had hitherto in...

A day or two after his conversation with Crabwitz, as described in the last chapter, Mr Furnival was driven up to the door of Sir Peregrine Orme’s house in a Hamworth fly. He had come over by train from Alston on...

On the next morning they were all in their places at ten o’clock, and the crowd had been gathered outside the doors of the court from a much earlier hour. As the trial progressed the interest in it increased, and as people began to...

‘Oh indeed!’ Those had been the words with which Mr Furnival had received the announcement made by Sir Peregrine as to his proposed nuptials. And as he uttered them the lawyer drew himself up stiffly in his chair, looking much more like a...

Lucius Mason at this time was living at home at Orley Farm, not by any means in a happy frame of mind. It will be perhaps remembered that he had at one time had an interview with Mr Furnival in that lawyer’s chambers, which...

Felix Graham, when he left poor Mary Snow, did not go on immediately to the doctor’s shop. He had made up his mind that Mary Snow should never be his wife, and therefore considered it wise to lose no time in making such...

In the last chapter Peregrine Mason* called at Orley Farm with the view of discussing with Lucius Mason the conduct of their respective progenitors; and, as will be remembered, the young men agreed in a general way that their progenitors were about to...

It has been said in the earlier pages of this story that there was no prettier scenery to be found within thirty miles of London than that by which the little town of Hamworth was surrounded. This was so truly the case that Hamworth...

The eve of the trial had now come, and still there had been no confidence between the mother and the son. No words of kindness had been spoken with reference to that terrible event which was so near at hand. Lucius had in his...

Christmas-day was always a time of very great trial to Mrs Mason of Groby Park. It behoved her, as the wife of an old English country gentleman, to spread her board plenteously at that season, and in some sort to make an open house...

On the following morning, according to appointment, the judge visited Felix Graham in his room. It was only the second occasion on which he had done so since the accident, and he was therefore more inclined to regard him as an invalid than those...

Mr Dockwrath, as he left Leeds and proceeded to join the bosom of his family, was not discontented with what he had done. It might not improbably have been the case that Mr Mason would altogether refuse to see him, and having seen him,...

Lady Mason remained at The Cleeve for something more than a week after that day on which she made her confession, during which time she was fully committed to take her trial at the next assizes at Alston on an indictment for perjury. This...

When Lady Mason last left the chambers of her lawyer in Lincoln’s Inn, she was watched by a stout lady as she passed through the narrow passage leading from the Old to the New Square. That fact will I trust be remembered,* and...

The Christmas doings at The Cleeve were not very gay. There was no visitor there, except Lady Mason, and it was known that she was in trouble. It must not, however, be supposed that she constantly bewailed herself while there, or made her friends...

There was a power of endurance about her, and a courage that was almost awful. Did Lady Mason forge a codicil to her husband's will, allowing Orley Farm to pass to her son or not? Orley Farm centres on this case of forgery, and the anguish and guilt of Lady Mason. Surrounding this enigmatic woman and her apparent crime are her elderly lover, Sir Peregrine Orme; her principled but thoughtless son, Lucius; and, not least, a group of determined lawyers. Orley Farm contains the plot with which Trollope was most pleased. Drawing on family experience of the loss of an inheritance, the novel tackles the tremendous question of property fraud. The result, as George Orwell observed, is one of the most brilliant novels about a law suit in English fiction. Orley Farm dates from a confident period of its authorâs life. It breathes an air of writerly assurance, with Trollope at the height of his competitiveness with Dickens. In this work Trollope claims the Victorian legal novel as his own.

The house at Noningsby on Christmas-day was quite full, and yet it was by no means a small house. Mrs Arbuthnot, the judge’s married daughter, was there, with her three children; and Mr Furnival was there, having got over those domestic difficulties in which...

Mrs Orme was up very early on that last morning of the trial, and had dressed herself before Lady Mason was awake. It was now March, but yet the morning light was hardly sufficient for her as she went through her toilet. They had...

We left Lady Mason very grateful at the end of the last chapter for the promise made to her by Sir Peregrine with reference to her son; but there was still a weight on Lady Mason’s mind. They say that the pith of a...

‘There’s a double ditch and bank that will do as well,’ Miss Tristram had said when she was informed that there was no gate out of the wood at the side on which the fox had broken. The gentleman who had tendered the...

Mr Samuel Dockwrath was a little man, with sandy hair, a pale face, and stone-blue eyes. In judging of him by appearance only and not by the ear, one would be inclined to doubt that he could be a very sharp attorney abroad and...

At that time Sir Richard Leatherham was the Solicitor-general, and he had been retained as leading counsel for the prosecution. It was quite understood by all men who did understand what was going on in the world, that this trial had been in truth...