convinced that his conviction
will spoil his chance of a divorce, she will take the whole thing coolly
enough. My idea was that by opening fully, and touching on every point,
you would escape the appearance of shirking anything. And at the same
time you would be suggesting these motives for violence on Walcott's
part which, as you said, it would be their business to avoid."

"There is a good deal in that," said Sydney, reflectively. "It is worth
considering. Yes, two heads are certainly better than one. I see that I
am instructed to ask about the attempt on her life at Aix-les-Bains.
Why, what a rascal the man has been to her! No wonder she is venemous
now."

When the trial took place, the court was crowded with men and women who
were anxious to see the principal actors in what was popularly known as
the Surrey Street Mystery. They were both there--Alan pale and haggard
from his long suspense, and Cora, much pulled down by what she had gone
through. Of the two, she was, perhaps, the more interesting. Illness and
loss of blood had done something to efface the dissipated look which had
become habitual with her; she was languid and soberly dressed; and,
moreover, she understood, as Mr. Johnson had said she would, that the
conviction of her husband would put his divorce out of the question, at
any rate for some time to come. So it was her business to look
interesting, and injured, and quiet; and she was cunning enough to play
this part successfully.

Alan, on the other hand, was completely indifferent as to the opinion
which might be formed of him, and almost indifferent as to the verdict.
When he came into court he looked carefully round at the women who were
present among the spectators, but, not seeing the one face which he had
both dreaded and hoped to see, he fell back into his former lethargy,
and took very little interest in the proceedings.

Sydney Campion opened the case for the prosecution in a business-like
way, just glancing at the unhappy relations which had existed between
the prisoner and his wife for several years past, and freely admitting
that there appeared to have been faults on both sides. He took the
common-sense view of a man of the world speaking to men of the world,
and did not ask the sympathies of the jury for the injured woman who had
come straight from the hospital to that court, but only their impartial
attention to the evidence which would be brought before them, and the
expression of the