ired: 'Why to-morrow?' did you reply: 'A night has been
known to change the whole current of one's affairs'?"

"I did."

"Miss Dare, what did you mean by those words?"

"I object!" cried Mr. Orcutt, rising. Unseen by any save himself, the
prisoner had made him an eloquent gesture, slight, but peremptory.

"I think it is one I have a right to ask," urged the District Attorney.

But Mr. Orcutt, who manifestly had the best of the argument, maintained
his objection, and the Court instantly ruled in his favor.

Mr. Ferris prepared to modify his question. But before he could speak
the voice of Miss Dare was heard.

"Gentlemen," said she, "there was no need of all this talk. I intended
to seek an interview with Mrs. Clemmens and try what the effect would be
of confiding to her my interest in her nephew."

The dignified simplicity with which she spoke, and the air of quiet
candor that for that one moment surrounded her, gave to this voluntary
explanation an unexpected force that carried it quite home to the hearts
of the jury. Even Mr. Orcutt could not preserve the frown with which he
had confronted her at the first movement of her lips, but turned toward
the prisoner with a look almost congratulatory in its character. But Mr.
Byrd, who for reasons of his own kept his eyes upon that prisoner,
observed that it met with no other return than that shadow of a bitter
smile which now and then visited his otherwise unmoved countenance.

Mr. Ferris, who, in his friendship for the witness, was secretly
rejoiced in an explanation which separated her from the crime of her
lover, bowed in acknowledgment of the answer she had been pleased to
give him in face of the ruling of the Court, and calmly proceeded:

"And what reply did the prisoner make you when you uttered this remark
in reference to the change that a single day sometimes makes in one's
affairs?"

"Something in the way of assent."

"Cannot you give us his words?"

"No, sir."

"Well, then, can you tell us whether or not he looked thoughtful when
you said this?"

"He may have done so, sir."

"Did it strike you at the time that he reflected on what you said?"

"I cannot say how it struck me at the time."

"Did he look at you a few minutes before speaking, or in any way conduct
himself as if he had been set thinking?"

"He did not speak for a few minutes."

"And looked at you?"

"Yes, sir."

The District Attorney paused a moment as if to let the results of