The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Evil Genius, by Wilkie Collins

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Title: The Evil Genius

Author: Wilkie Collins

Posting Date: November 23, 2008 [EBook #1627]
Release Date: February, 1999

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE EVIL GENIUS ***

Produced by James Rusk

THE EVIL GENIUS

A DOMESTIC STORY

By Wilkie Collins

Affectionately Dedicated
to Holman Hunt

BEFORE THE STORY.

Miss Westerfield's Education

1.--The Trial.

THE gentlemen of the jury retired to consider their verdict.

Their foreman was a person doubly distinguished among his colleagues. He
had the clearest head, and the readiest tongue. For once the right man
was in the right place.

Of the eleven jurymen, four showed their characters on the surface. They
were:

The hungry juryman, who wanted his dinner.

The inattentive juryman, who drew pictures on his blotting paper.

The nervous juryman, who suffered from fidgets.

The silent juryman, who decided the verdict.

Of the seven remaining members, one was a little drowsy man who gave no
trouble; one was an irritable invalid who served under protest; and
five represented that vast majority of the population--easily governed,
tranquilly happy--which has no opinion of its own.

The foreman took his place at the head of the table. His colleagues
seated themselves on either side of him. Then there fell upon that
assembly of men a silence, never known among an assembly of women--the
silence which proceeds from a general reluctance to be the person who
speaks first.

It was the foreman's duty, under these circumstances, to treat his
deliberative brethren as we treat our watches when they stop: he wound
the jury up and set them going.

"Gentlemen," he began, "have you formed any decided opinion on the
case--thus far?"

Some of them said "Yes," and some of them said "No." The little drowsy
man said nothing. The fretful invalid cried, "Go on!" The nervous
juryman suddenly rose. His brethren all looked at him, inspired by the
same fear of having got an orator among them. He was an essentially
polite man; and he haste