tagonia, quarries in Labrador--such like speculations. Fisheries
to feed a canning Factory on the banks of the Amazon was one of them. A
principality to be bought in Madagascar was another. As the grotesque
details of these incredible transactions came out one by one ripples of
laughter ran over the closely packed court--each one a little louder
than the other. The audience ended by fairly roaring under the
cumulative effect of absurdity. The Registrar laughed, the barristers
laughed, the reporters laughed, the serried ranks of the miserable
depositors watching anxiously every word, laughed like one man. They
laughed hysterically--the poor wretches--on the verge of tears.

There was only one person who remained unmoved. It was de Barral
himself. He preserved his serene, gentle, expression, I am told (for I
have not witnessed those scenes myself), and looked around at the people
with an air of placid sufficiency which was the first hint to the world
of the man's overweening, immeasurable conceit, hidden hitherto under a
diffident manner. It could be seen too in his dogged assertion that if
he had been given enough time and a lot more money everything would have
come right. And there were some people (yes, amongst his very victims)
who more than half believed him, even after the criminal prosecution
which soon followed. When placed in the dock he lost his steadiness as
if some sustaining illusion had gone to pieces within him suddenly. He
ceased to be himself in manner completely, and even in disposition, in
so far that his faded neutral eyes matching his discoloured hair so
well, were discovered then to be capable of expressing a sort of
underhand hate. He was at first defiant, then insolent, then broke down
and burst into tears; but it might have been from rage. Then he calmed
down, returned to his soft manner of speech and to that unassuming quiet
bearing which had been usual with him even in his greatest days. But it
seemed as though in this moment of change he had at last perceived what
a power he had been; for he remarked to one of the prosecuting counsel
who had assumed a lofty moral tone in questioning him, that--yes, he had
gambled--he liked cards. But that only a year ago a host of smart
people would have been only too pleased to take a hand at cards with
him. Yes--he went on--some of the very people who were there
accommodated with seats on the bench; and turning upon the counsel, "You
yourself