mbers
of the Mainwaring family,--the deceased Hugh Mainwaring and the
contestant in particular; and also to show the implacable anger of
Ralph Maxwell Mainwaring against his elder son and the extreme
improbability of his ever relenting in his favor.

Day after day dragged slowly on, still taken up with the examination
of witnesses for contestant; examinations too tedious and monotonous
for repetition, but full of interest to the crowds which came and
went, increasing daily, till, on the days devoted to the expert
testimony, galleries and aisles were packed to overflowing, while
throngs of eager listeners gathered in the corridors about the
various exits.

It soon became evident that Ralph Mainwaring's oft repeated
assertions concerning the elaborate preparation he had made for the
coming contest were no idle boast. Nothing that human ingenuity
could devise had been left undone which could help to turn the
scale in his own favor. The original will of Ralph Maxwell
Mainwaring, by which his elder son was disinherited, was produced
and read in court. Both wills were photographed, and numerous
copies, minute in every detail, made, in order to show by comparison
the differences in their respective signatures. Under powerful
microscopes it was discovered that several pauses had been made in
the signature of the later will. Electric batteries were introduced
to show that the document had been steeped in coffee and tobacco
juice to give it the appearance of great age. Interesting chemical
experiments were performed, by which a piece of new paper was made
to look stained and spotted as if mildewed and musty, while by the
use of tiny files and needles, the edges, having first been slightly
scalloped, were grated and the paper punctured, till it presented
a very similar aspect to the will itself as though worn through at
the creases and frayed and tattered with age.

But the accumulation of this overwhelming mass of expert testimony
failed to make the impression upon counsel for proponent which had
been anticipated by the other side. Mr. Sutherland varied the
monotony of the direct examinations by frequent and pertinent
objections, while Barton & Barton took occasional notes, which were
afterwards passed to Sutherland and Montague, and by them used with
telling effect in the cross-examinations, but the faces of one and
all wore an expression inscrutable as that of the sphinx.

Only once was their equanimity disturbed b