at purpose. She was perhaps a
trifle too zealous--even the attorney for the defence bit his lip
occasionally at her dashing introduction of wholly irrelevant matter in
Sleeny's favor. But she was throughout true to herself also, and never
gave the least intimation that Offitt had any right to consider himself
a favored suitor. Perhaps she had attained the talent, so common in
more sophisticated circles than any with which she was familiar, of
forgetting all entanglements which it is not convenient to remember,
and of facing a discarded lover with a visage of insolent unconcern and
a heart unstirred by a memory.

The result of it all was, of course, that Sleeny was acquitted, though
it came about in a way which may be worth recording. The jury found a
verdict of "justifiable homicide," upon which the judge very properly
sent them back to their room, as the verdict was flatly against the law
and the evidence. They retired again, with stolid and unabashed
patience, and soon reappeared with a verdict of acquittal, on the
ground of "emotional insanity." But this remarkable jury determined to
do nothing by halves, and fearing that the reputation of being queer
might injure Sam in his business prospects, added to their verdict
these thoughtful and considerate words, which yet remain on the record,
to the lasting honor and glory of our system of trial by jury:

"And we hereby state that the prisoner was perfectly sane up to the
moment he committed the rash act in question, and perfectly sane the
moment after, and that, in our opinion, there is no probability that
the malady will ever recur."

After this memorable deliverance, Sam shook hands cordially and gravely
with each of the judicious jurymen, and then turned to where Maud was
waiting for him, with a rosy and happy face and a sparkling eye. They
walked slowly homeward together through the falling shadows.

Their lives were henceforth bound together for good or evil. We may not
say how much of good or how much of evil was to be expected from a
wedlock between two natures so ill-regulated and untrained, where the
woman brought into the partnership the wreck of ignoble ambitions and
the man the memory of a crime.

XX.

"NOW DO YOU REMEMBER?"

Farnham's convalescence was rapid. When the first danger of fever was
over, the wound on the head healed quickly, and one morning Mrs.
Belding came home with the news that he was to drive out that
afternoon. Alice sat