the conversation already mentioned,
corroborated the first witness in every particular; and added that she
had procured the book relating to the arsenic-eating practices of the
Styrian peasantry, and their results, at Mrs. Eustace Macallan's own
request. This book she had herself dispatched by post to Mrs. Eustace
Macallan at Gleninch.

There was but one assailable point in this otherwise conclusive
evidence. The cross-examination discovered it.

Both the ladies were asked, in turn, if Mrs. Eustace Macallan had
expressed to them, directly or indirectly, any intention of obtaining
arsenic, with a view to the improvement of her complexion. In each case
the answer to that all-important question was, No. Mrs. Eustace Macallan
had heard of the remedy, and had received the book. But of her own
intentions in the future she had not said one word. She had begged both
the ladies to consider the conversation as strictly private--and there
it had ended.

It required no lawyer's eye to discern the fatal defect which was now
revealed in the evidence for the defense. Every intelligent person
present could see that the prisoner's chance of an honorable acquittal
depended on tracing the poison to the possession of his wife--or at
least on proving her expressed intention to obtain it. In either of
these cases the prisoner's Declaration of his innocence would claim the
support of testimony, which, however indirect it might be, no honest
and intelligent men would be likely to resist. Was that testimony
forthcoming? Was the counsel for the defense not at the end of his
resources yet?

The crowded audience waited in breathless expectation for the appearance
of the next witness. A whisper went round among certain well-instructed
persons that the Court was now to see and hear the prisoner's old
friend--already often referred to in the course of the Trial as "Mr.
Dexter."

After a brief interval of delay there was a sudden commotion among
the audience, accompanied by suppressed exclamations of curiosity and
surprise. At the same moment the crier summoned the new witness by the
extraordinary name of

"MISERRIMUS DEXTER"

CHAPTER XX. THE END OF THE TRIAL.

THE calling of the new witness provoked a burst of laughter among the
audience due partly, no doubt, to the strange name by which he had
been summoned; partly, also, to the instinctive desire of all crowded
assemblies, when their interest is painfully excited, to seize on any
r