n for discharging them immediately is before you at this
moment in the person of that gentleman. There, sir, stands the murdered
Mr. James Smith, of Darrock Hall, alive and well, to answer for
himself."

"That is not the man!" cried Josephine, her shrill voice just as high,
clear, and steady as ever, "I denounce that man as an impostor. Of my
own knowledge, I deny that he is Mr. James Smith."

"No doubt you do," said the lawyer; "but we will prove his identity for
all that."

The first witness called was Mr. Philip Nicholson. He could swear that
he had seen Mr. James Smith, and spoken to him at least a dozen times.
The person now before h im was Mr. James Smith, altered as to personal
appearance by having his hair cut short and his whiskers shaved off, but
still unmistakably the man he assumed to be.

"Conspiracy!" interrupted the prisoner, hissing the word out viciously
between her teeth.

"If you are not silent," said Mr. Robert Nicholson, "you will be removed
from the room. It will sooner meet the ends of justice," he went
on, addressing the lawyer, "if you prove the question of identity by
witnesses who have been in habits of daily communication with Mr. James
Smith."

Upon this, one of the servants from the Hall was placed in the box.

The alteration in his master's appearance evidently puzzled the man.
Besides the perplexing change already adverted to, there was also a
change in Mr. James Smith's expression and manner. Rascal as he was, I
must do him the justice to say that he looked startled and ashamed when
he first caught sight of his unfortunate wife. The servant, who was used
to be eyed tyrannically by him, and ordered about roughly, seeing him
now for the first time abashed and silent, stammered and hesitated on
being asked to swear to his identity.

"I can hardly say for certain, sir," said the man, addressing the
justice in a bewildered manner. "He is like my master, and yet he isn't.
If he wore whiskers and had his hair long, and if he was, saying your
presence, sir, a little more rough and ready in his way, I could swear
to him anywhere with a safe conscience."

Fortunately for us, at this moment Mr. James Smith's feeling of
uneasiness at the situation in which he was placed changed to a feeling
of irritation at being coolly surveyed and then stupidly doubted in the
matter of his identity by one of his own servants.

"Can't you say in plain words, you idiot, whether you know me or whether
yo