accept the vagaries of the artistic
temperament in extenuation of some so-called irrational action.

In the present case counsel for the defense would plead that his
clients (Sylvia would undoubtedly figure in the charge) were moved by
an overwhelming impulse shared in common. It was a glorious night, he
might urge; each had been thinking of the other; each elected to
stroll forth under the stars; their sympathies were linked by the
strange circumstances which had led to the production of a noteworthy
picture--what more likely than that they should visit the scene to
which that picture owed its genesis?

Trenholme, it might be held, had not knowingly reached that stage of
soul-sickness which brings the passionate cry to _Valentine's_ lips:

Except I be by Sylvia in the night,
There is no music in the nightingale;
Unless I look on Sylvia in the day,
There is no day for me to look upon.

"But, gentlemen," the wily one would continue, "that indefinable
excitation of the nervous system which is summed up in the one small
word 'love' must have a beginning; and whether that beginning springs
from spore or germ, it is admittedly capable of amazingly rapid
growth. The male defendant may not even have been aware of its
existence, but subsequent events establish the diagnosis beyond cavil;
and I would remind you that the melodious lines I have just quoted
could not have been written by our immortal bard, Shakespeare, if two
gentlemen of Verona, and two Veronese ladies as well, had not yielded
to influences not altogether unlike those which governed my clients on
this memorable occasion."

Juries invariably treat Shakespeare's opinions with profound respect.
They know they ought to be well acquainted with his "works," but they
are not, and hope to conceal their ignorance by accepting the poet's
philosophy without reservation.

If, however, owing to the forensic skill of an advocate, romance might
be held accountable for the wanderings of John and Sylvia, what of
Robert? He, at least, was not under its magic spell. He, when the
fateful hour struck, was merely drinking himself drowsy. To explain
_him_, witnesses would be needed, and who more credible than a
Superintendent and Detective Inspector of the Criminal Investigation
Department?

When Winter had smoked, and Furneaux had contributed some personal
reminiscences the whole aim and object of which was the perplexing
and mystifica