ant audience.

Mr. Moffat, apparently unaffected by this result of his daring move,
pursued his course, with the quiet determination of one who sees his goal
and is working deliberately towards it.

"Do you mind particularising? Of what did she especially disapprove in
your conduct or way of spending money?"

"She disapproved of my fondness for drink. She didn't like my late hours,
or the condition in which I frequently came home. I did not like her
expressions of displeasure, or the way she frequently cut me short when I
wanted to have a good time with my friends. We never agreed. I made her
suffer often and unnecessarily. I regret it now; she was a better sister
to me than I could then understand."

This was uttered slowly and with a quiet emphasis which reawakened that
excited hum the judge had been at such pains to quell a moment before.
But he did not quell it now; he seemed to have forgotten his duty in the
strong interest called up by these admissions from the tongue of the most
imperturbable prisoner he had had before him in years.

Mr. Moffat, with an eye on District Attorney Fox, who had shown his
surprise at the trend the examination was taking by a slight indication
of uneasiness, grateful enough, no doubt, to the daring counsellor, went
on with his examination:

"Mr. Cumberland, will you tell us when you first felt this change of
opinion in regard to your sister?"

Mr. Fox leaped to his feet. Then he slowly reseated himself. Evidently he
thought it best to let the prisoner have his full say. Possibly he may
have regretted his leniency the next moment when, with a solemn lowering
of his head, Arthur answered:

"When I saw my home desolated in one dreadful night. With one sister dead
in the house, the victim of violence, and another delirious from fright
or some other analogous cause, I had ample time to think--and I used that
time. That's all."

Simple words, read or repeated; but in that crowded court-room, with
every ear strained to catch the lie which seemed the only refuge for the
man so hemmed in by circumstance, these words, uttered without the least
attempt at effect, fell with a force which gave new life to such as
wished to see this man acquitted.

His counsel, as if anxious to take advantage of this very expectation to
heighten the effect of what followed, proceeded immediately to inquire:

"When did you see your sister Adelaide for the last time alive?"

A searching question. What wo