se it
had often been triumphantly asked by his wife.

"I can really give no particular reason," he said, "except that, on
reflection, the boy's previous character and antecedents convinced
me that he could not have done such an act."

"In fact," the counsel said suavely, "you were influenced by your
own goodness of heart, Mr. Ellison, in thus laying aside a
conviction which the facts had, at the time, forced upon you."

"I don't look upon it in that light," the squire replied shortly.
"I consider that in the first instance I acted hastily and
unadvisedly, and on consideration I saw that I had done so."

"I am afraid, Mr. Ellison," the counsel said, "that you will not
persuade the jury to agree with you."

"I have only one or two questions to ask you," the counsel for the
defence said, when he rose to cross-examine, "for indeed your
evidence is, as I think the jury will agree, altogether in favour
of the prisoner. In the first place, was the lad, when in your
employment, ever upstairs in your house?"

"Not that I know of," the squire replied. "Certainly in the course
of his duties he would never be there. Indeed, it would be very
seldom that he would even enter the kitchen, except to bring in
vegetables. Certainly he would never pass through to go upstairs.
He could not possibly have done so without exciting attention and
remarks."

"He would therefore, Mr. Ellison, have no means of possessing any
knowledge as to the internal arrangements of your house, beyond
that possessed by the other people in the village?"

"None whatever," Mr. Ellison replied.

"Now, as to that unfortunate affair of the poisoning of your dog.
Your opinion, as to the innocence of the prisoner in that matter,
is not a recent one--not the outcome of his after good conduct and
character?"

"Not at all," Mr. Ellison said. "I changed my opinion on the matter
very shortly, indeed, after the affair."

"Within a few days, I think I may say?" the counsel asked.

"Within a very few days; I may almost say within a few hours," the
squire replied. "The boy's story, told not to me but to another,
that he believed the dog was poisoned by another lad in the village
who owed him a grudge, and who has since turned out an exceedingly
bad character, struck me as being very much more probable than that
he should do it, himself."

Mrs. Ellison was next called. Her evidence as to the robbery was a
mere repetition of that given by the squire. The counsel