by
the two combined. At the club it was certainly believed that the case
was going against the prisoner.

"You have read it all, of course," said the Duchess of Omnium to her
husband, as she sat with the _Observer_ in her hand on that Sunday
morning. The Sunday papers were full of the report, and were enjoying
a very extended circulation.

"I wish you would not think so much about it," said the Duke.

"That's very easily said, but how is one to help thinking about it?
Of course I am thinking about it. You know all about the coat. It
belonged to the man where Mealyus was lodging."

"I will not talk about the coat, Glencora. If Mr. Finn did commit the
murder it is right that he should be convicted."

"But if he didn't?"

"It would be doubly right that he should be acquitted. But the jury
will have means of arriving at a conclusion without prejudice, which
you and I cannot have; and therefore we should be prepared to take
their verdict as correct."

"If they find him guilty, their verdict will be damnable and false,"
said the Duchess. Whereupon the Duke turned away in anger, and
resolved that he would say nothing more about the trial,--which
resolution, however, he was compelled to break before the trial was
over.

"What do you think about it, Mr. Erle?" asked the other Duke.

"I don't know what to think;--I only hope."

"That he may be acquitted?"

"Of course."

"Whether guilty or innocent?"

"Well;--yes. But if he is acquitted I shall believe him to have been
innocent. Your Grace thinks--?"

"I am as unwilling to think as you are, Mr. Erle." It was thus that
people spoke of it. With the exception of some very few, all those
who had known Phineas were anxious for an acquittal, though they
could not bring themselves to believe that an innocent man had been
put in peril of his life.

On the Monday morning the trial was recommenced, and the whole day
was taken up by the address which Mr. Chaffanbrass made to the jury.
He began by telling them the history of the coat which lay before
them, promising to prove by evidence all the details which he stated.
It was not his intention, he said, to accuse any one of the murder.
It was his business to defend the prisoner, not to accuse others.
But, as he should prove to them, two persons had been arrested as
soon as the murder had been discovered,--two persons totally unknown
to each other, and who were never for a moment supposed to have acted
together,--and the