r part of the conversation which he had
described himself as overhearing had never taken place. The little that
was really said (as the man reported it) was said jestingly; and she had
checked it immediately--as the witness had himself confessed. For the
rest, Mr. Macallan's behavior toward his wife was invariably kind
and considerate. He was constantly devising means to alleviate her
sufferings from the rheumatic affection which confined her to her bed;
he had spoken of her, not once but many times, in terms of the sincerest
sympathy. When she ordered her husband and witness to leave the room, on
the day of her death, Mr. Macallan said to witness afterward, "We must
bear with her jealousy, poor soul: we know that we don't deserve it." In
that patient manner he submitted to her infirmities of temper from first
to last.

The main interest in the cross-examination of Mrs. Beauly centered in
a question which was put at the end. After reminding her that she had
given her name, on being sworn, as "Helena Beauly," the Lord Advocate
said:

"A letter addressed to the prisoner, and signed 'Helena,' has been read
in Court. Look at it, if you please. Are you the writer of that letter?"

Before the witness could reply the Dean of Faculty protested against
the question. The Judges allowed the protest, and refused to permit the
question to be put. Mrs. Beauly thereupon withdrew. She had betrayed
a very perceptible agitation on hearing the letter referred to, and on
having it placed in her hands. This exhibition of feeling was variously
interpreted among the audience. Upon the whole, however, Mrs. Beauly's
evidence was considered to have aided the impression which the mother's
evidence had produced in the prisoner's favor.

The next witnesses--both ladies, and both school friends of Mrs. Eustace
Macallan--created a new feeling of interest in Court. They supplied the
missing link in the evidence for the defense.

The first of the ladies declared that she had mentioned arsenic as a
means of improving the complexion in conversation with Mrs. Eustace
Macallan. She had never used it herself, but she had read of the
practice of eating arsenic among the Styrian peasantry for the purpose
of clearing the color, and of producing a general appearance of
plumpness and good health. She positively swore that she had related
this result of her reading to the deceased lady exactly as she now
related it in Court.

The second witness, present at