through the crowded space before the doors, traverse the town, densely
thronged by curious and eager visitors. We do not mean to linger with
them, nor overhear the comments they passed upon the eventful scene
beside them; our business is about a mile off, at a small public-house
at a short distance from the roadside, usually frequented by
cattle-dealers and the customers at the weekly markets. Here, in a
meanly-furnished room, where, for it was now evening, a common dip
candle shed its lugubrious yellow light upon the rude appliances of
vulgar life, sat a man, whose eager expectancy was marked in every line
of his figure. Every now and then he would arise from his chair, and,
screening the candle from the wind, open the window to look out.

The night was dark and gusty; drifting rain beat at intervals against
the glass, and seemed the forerunner of a great storm. The individual
we have spoken of did not seem to care for, if he even noticed, the
inclemency; he brushed the wet from his bushy beard and mustaches with
indifference, and bent his ear to listen to the sounds upon the road in
deepest earnestness. At last the sound of horses' feet and wheels was
heard rapidly approaching, and a car drove up to the door, from which a
man, wrapped up in a loose frieze coat, descended, and quickly mounted
the stairs. As he reached the landing, the door of the room was thrown
vide, and the other man, in a low, but distinct, voice said, "Well, what
news?"

"All right," said he of the frieze coat, as, throwing off the wet
garment, he discovered the person of Mr. Clare Jones. "Nothing could
possibly go better; my cross-examination clinched Keane's evidence
completely, and no jury could get over it."

"I almost wish you had let him alone," said the other, gruffly, and in
evident discontent; "I foresee that the sympathy the scoundrel affected
will be troublesome to us yet."

"I have no fears on that head," replied the other, confidently. "The
facts are there, and Crankle's speech to evidence ripped him up in a
terrific manner."

"Did he allude to the Spanish girl?"

"He did, and with great effect."

"And the Kilgoff affair--did he bring 'My Lady' up for judgment?"

"No. The Attorney-General positively forbade all allusion to that
business."

"Oh, indeed!" said the other, with a savage sneer. "'The Court' was too
sacred for such profanation."

"I think he was right, too," said Jones. "The statement could never have
been brou