a fly's foot, give me but a clew no thicker than a spider's
web, and I'll follow it through the whole labyrinth. But you see I'm
impotent; there's no basis for me. It is a case for you. It wants a
shrewd, sagacious body that can read facts and faces; and-- I won't jest
any more, Miss Rolleston, for you are deeply in earnest. Well, then, she
really is a woman with a wonderful insight into facts and faces. She has
got a way of reading them as I read handwriting; and she must have taken
a great fancy to you, for as a rule she never does us the honor to
meddle."

"Have you taken a fancy to me, madam?" said Helen, modestly and tenderly,
yet half archly.

"That I have," said the other. "Those eyes of yours went straight into my
heart last night, or I should not be here this morning. That is partly
owing to my own eyes being so dark and yours the loveliest hazel. It is
twenty years since eyes like yours have gazed into mine. Diamonds are not
half so rare, nor a tenth part so lovely, to my fancy."

She turned her head away, melted probably by some tender reminiscence. It
was only for a moment. She turned round again, and said quietly, "Yes,
Ned, I should like to try what I can do; I think you said these are
reports of his trial. I'll begin by reading them."

She read them both very slowly and carefully, and her face grew like a
judge's, and Helen watched each shade of expression with deep anxiety.

That powerful countenance showed alacrity and hope at first. Then doubt
and difficulty, and at last dejection. Helen's heart turned cold, and for
the first time she began to despair. For now a shrewd person, with a
plain prejudice in her favor and Robert's, was staggered by the simple
facts of the trial.

CHAPTER LIX.

MRS. UNDERCLIFF, having read the reports, avoided Helen's eye (another
bad sign). She turned to Mr. Undercliff, and, probably because the
perusal of the reports had disappointed her, said, almost angrily:
"Edward, what did you say to make them laugh at that trial? Both these
papers say that 'an expert was called, whose ingenuity made the court
smile, but did not counterbalance the evidence.'"

"Why, that is a falsehood on the face of it," said the expert, turning
red. "I was called simply and solely to prove Penfold did not write the
forged note; I proved it to the judge's satisfaction, and he directed the
prisoner to be acquitted on that count. Miss Rolleston, the lawyers often
do sneer at experts; but th