he President picked up the word, in astonishment.

"Do you want to find excuses for him, madame?"

Lady Beltham stood erect, and looked at the President.

"It is written that to pardon is the first duty of good Christians. It
is true that I have mourned my husband, but the punishment of his
murderer will not dry my tears; I ought to forgive him, bow beneath the
burden that is laid upon my soul: and I do forgive him!"

Ghastly pale, Gurn was staring at Lady Beltham from the dock; and this
time his emotion was so visible that all the jury noticed it. The
President held a brief colloquy with his colleagues, asked the
prisoner's counsel whether he desired to put any questions to the
witness, and, receiving a reply in the negative, dismissed Lady Beltham
with a word of thanks, and announced that the Court would adjourn.

Immediately a hum of conversation broke out in the warm and sunny court;
barristers in their robes moved from group to group, criticising,
explaining, prophesying; and in their seats the world of beauty and
fashion bowed and smiled and gossiped.

"She's uncommonly pretty, this Lady Beltham," one young lawyer said,
"and she's got a way of answering questions without compromising
herself, and yet without throwing blame on the prisoner, that is
uncommonly clever."

"You are all alike, you men," said a pretty, perfectly dressed woman in
mocking tones; "if a woman is young, and hasn't got a hump on her back,
and has a charming voice, your sympathies are with her at once! Oh, yes,
they are! Now shall I tell you what your Lady Beltham really is? Well,
she is nothing more nor less than a barnstormer! She knew well enough
how to get on the soft side of the judge, who was quite ridiculously
amiable to her, and to capture the sympathy of the Court. I think it was
outrageous to declare that she had married a man who was too old for
her, and to say that she felt nothing but esteem for him!"

"There's an admission!" the young barrister laughed. "_Vive l'amour_,
eh? And _mariages de convenance_ are played out, eh?"

On another bench a little further away, a clean-shaven man with a highly
intelligent face was talking animatedly.

"Bosh! Your Lady Beltham is anything you like: what do I care for Lady
Beltham? I shall never play women's parts, shall I? She does not stand
for anything. But Gurn, now! There's a type, if you like! What an
interesting, characteristic face! He has the head of the assassin of
genius, wit