both of the utter futility of her answer, and of the effect it
must be producing.

Alison hung her head, and frowned in absolute shame and despair, already
perceiving how matters must go, and feeling as if the hope of her
brother's vindication were slipping away--reft from her by Rachel's
folly. Colin gave an indignant sigh, and whispering to her, "Come out
when Lady Temple does, I will meet you," he made his way out of court.

There had been a moment's pause after Rachel's "I thought so," and then
the chairman spoke to the counsel for the prosecution. "Mr. Murray, can
you carry the case any further by other witnesses? At present I see no
case to go to the jury. You will see that the witness not only does not
set up any case of embezzlement, but rather loads to an inference in the
contrary direction."

"No, sir," was the answer; "I am afraid that I can add nothing to the
case already presented to you."

Upon this, the chairman said,

"Gentlemen of the Jury,--The case for the prosecution does not sustain
the indictment or require me to call on the prisoner for his defence,
and it is your duty to find him not guilty. You will observe that we
are not trying a civil action, in respect of the large sum which he has
received from the young lady, and for which he is still accountable to
her; nor by acquitting him are you pronouncing that he has not shown
himself a man of very questionable honesty, but only that the evidence
will not bring him within the grasp of the criminal law, as guilty of
embezzlement under the statute, and this because of the looseness of
the arrange ments, that had been implied instead of expressed. It is
exceedingly to be regretted that with the best intentions and kindest
purposes, want of caution and experience on her part should have
enabled the prisoner thus to secure himself from the possibility of a
conviction; but there can be no doubt that the evidence before us is
such as to leave no alternative but a verdict of not guilty."

The very tenderness and consideration of the grey-haired Sir Edward
Morden's tone were more crushing to Rachel than severe animadversions
on her folly would have been from a stranger. Here was she, the Clever
Woman of the family, shown in open court to have been so egregious
a dupe that the deceiver could not even be punished, but must go
scot-free, leaving all her wrongs unredressed! To her excited, morbid
apprehension, magnified by past self-sufficiency, it was as