hough, at the moment, he was inwardly provoked at
the dilatoriness of the judge.

Public opinion was expressing itself very strongly in the press. 'The
Daily Tell-Tale' had a beautifully sensational article, written by their
very best artist. The whole picture was drawn with a cunning hand. The
young wife in her lonely house down in Cambridge which the artist not
inaptly called The Moated Grange! The noble, innocent, high-souled
husband, eating his heart out within the bars of a county prison, and
with very little else to eat! The indignant father, driven almost to
madness by the wrongs done to his son and heir! Had the son not been an
heir this point would have been much less touching. And then the old
evidence was dissected, and the new evidence against the new culprits
explained. In regard to the new culprits, the writer was very loud in
expressing his purpose to say not a word against persons who were still
to be tried;--but immediately upon that he went on and said a great many
words against them. Assuming all that was said about them to be true, he
asked whether the country would for a moment endure the idea that a man
in Mr. Caldigate's position should be kept in prison on the evidence of
such miscreants. When he came to Bagwax and the postmarks, he explained
the whole matter with almost more than accuracy. He showed that the
impression could not possibly have been made till after the date it
conveyed. He fell into some little error as to the fabrication of the
postage-stamp in the colony, not having quite seized Bagwax's great
point. But it was a most telling article. And the writer, as he turned
it off at his club, and sent it down to the office of the paper, was
ready to bet a five-pound note that Caldigate would be out before a week
was over. The Secretary of State saw the article, and acknowledged its
power. And then even the 'Slipper' turned round and cautiously expressed
an opinion that the time had come for mercy.

There could be no doubt that public opinion was running very high in
Caldigate's favour, and that the case had become thoroughly popular.
People were again beginning to give dinner-parties in London, and at
every party the matter was discussed. It was a peculiarly interesting
case because the man had thrown away so large a sum of money! People
like to have a nut to crack which is 'uncrackable,'--a Gordian knot
to undo which cannot even be cut. Nobody could understand the twenty
thousand pounds