"On the platform outside the door." "Was he holding on to anything?" Miss Silcock looked a little flustered. "I don't remember." "Oh, but try, Miss Silcock," said His Honour soothingly, but sitting up straight in his chair again. "Well, no, I don't think he was. He'd turned round." "Oh, he _had_ turned round!" said Arthur, with a quite artistic glance at the jury. "Well, he just turned and smiled at me--sort o' smiled good night." "Of course! Very natural he should!" "But he didn't seem to remember having done it," observed His Honour. "Did he do anything besides smile at you?" asked Arthur. "No, I don't think----" She smiled and hesitated a moment. "Think again, Miss Silcock. You'd had a very pleasant evening together, you know." Miss Silcock blushed a little, but was by no means displeased. "Well, he did cut a sort of caper--silly-like," she admitted. "Oh, did he? Could you show us what it was like?" "I couldn't _show_ you," answered Miss Silcock, with a slight giggle and a little more blush. "He lifted up one leg and kind of wiggled it in the air, and----" "Just then the 'bus went on again, is that it?" "Well, just about then, yes." Miss Silcock had caught a look--such a look!--from her friend, and suddenly became reluctant. "While he was on one leg?" Miss Silcock, turned frightened and remorseful, was silent. "Answer the question, please," said His Honour. "Well, I suppose so. Yes." "Thank you, Miss Silcock. No more questions." Re-examination could not mend matters. The evidence for the defence came to very little. Counsel's speeches call for no record, and His Honour did little more than observe that, where Mr. Tiddes and Miss Silcock differed, the jury might see some reason to think that Miss Silcock's memory of the occurrence was likely to be the clearer and more trustworthy of the two. The jury thought so. "We find that the conductor started the 'bus too soon, but that the plaintiff oughtn't to have been behaving like he was," said the foreman. "That he wouldn't have tumbled off but for that, do you mean?" asked His Honour. After a moment's consultation, the foreman answered "Yes." "I submit that's a verdict of contributory negligence, your Honour," said Arthur, jumping up. "I don't think you can resist that, Mr. Cawley, can you?" His Honour asked of counsel for the plaintiff. "Judgment for the defendants with costs." Poor Mr. Tiddes! He was purple and furious. It is sadly doubtful if he ever again gave Miss Silcock a pleasant evening-out.