e
blasted every opposing power, consumed every tangle of adverse evidence.
It was as if he fought a pitched battle for himself alone. He wrestled
for the mastery rather than appealed for sympathy.

And he won his cause. His scathing attacks, his magnetism, his ruthless
insistence left an indelible mark upon the minds of the jury--such a mark
as no subsequent comments from the judge could efface or even moderate.
The verdict returned was unanimous in spite of a by no means favourable
summing-up. The prisoner was Not Guilty.

At the pronouncement of the verdict there went up a shout of applause
such as that Court had seldom heard. The prisoner, rather white but still
affecting sublime self-assurance, accepted it with a smile as a tribute
to himself. But it was not really directed towards him. It was for the
man who had defended him, the man who sat at the table below the dock and
turned over a sheaf of papers with a faint, cynical smile at the corners
of his thin lips. This man, they said, had done the impossible. He had
dragged the prisoner out of his morass by sheer titanic effort. Obviously
Percival Field had believed firmly in the innocence of the man he had
defended, or he had not thus triumphantly vindicated him.

The crowd, staring at him, wondered how the victory affected him. It had
certainly enhanced his reputation. It had drawn from him such a display
of genius as had amazed even his colleagues. Did he feel elated at all
over his success? Was he spent by that stupendous effort? No one knew?

Now that it was over, he looked utterly indifferent. He had fought and
conquered, but it seemed already as if his attention were turning
elsewhere.

The crowd began to stream out. The day was hot and the crush had been
very great. On one of the benches occupied by the public a woman had
fainted. They carried her out into the corridor and there gradually she
revived. A little later she went home alone in a taxi with her veil
closely drawn down over her face.

CHAPTER III

The season was drawing to a close when the announcement of Lady Violet
Calcott's engagement to Percival Field took the world by storm.

It very greatly astonished Burleigh Wentworth, who after his acquittal
had drifted down to Cowes for rest and refreshment before the advent of
the crowd. He had not seen Lady Violet before his departure, she having
gone out of town for a few days immediately after the trial. But he took
the very next train