n an under-voice and lifting and
lowering his eyebrows. "I told Cynthia so when she married. I ventured
to give her the benefit of my--if I may say so--long and intimate
knowledge of diplomatic life and diplomatists. I said to her, 'Remember
you can _always_ be under observation.' Ah, well--one can only hope
the jury will take the right view. But how can we expect British
shopkeepers, fruit brokers, cigar merchants, and so forth to understand
a--really, one can only say--a wild nature like Cynthia's? It's a wild
mind--I'd say this before her!--in an innocent body, just that."

He pulled almost distractedly at his beard with bony fingers, and
repeated plaintively:

"A wild mind in an innocent body--h'm, ha!"

"If only Mr. Grundy can be brought to comprehension of such a
phenomenon!" murmured Mrs. Chetwinde.

It was obvious to Dion that his two friends feared for the result.

The Judge had left the bench. An hour passed by, and the chime of a
clock striking five dropped down coolly, almost frostily, to the hot and
curious crowd. Mrs. Clarke sat very still. Esme Darlington had returned
to his place beside her, and she spoke to him now and then. Hadi
Bey wiped his handsome rounded brown forehead with a colored silk
handkerchief; and Aristide Dumeny, with half-closed eyes, ironically
examined the crowd, whispered to a member of his Embassy who had
accompanied him into court, folded his arms and sat looking down. Beadon
Clarke's face was rigid, and a fierce red, like the red of a blush of
shame, was fixed on his cheeks. His mother had pulled a thick black veil
with a pattern down over her face, and was fidgeting perpetually with a
chain of small moonstones set in gold which hung from her throat to her
waist. Daventry, blinking and twitching, examined documents, used
his handkerchief, glanced at his watch, hitched his gown up on his
shoulders, looked at Mrs. Clarke and looked away.

Uneasiness, like a monster, seemed crouching in the court as in a lair.

At a quarter-past five, the Judge returned to the bench. He had received
a communication from the jury, who filed in, to say, through their
foreman, that they could not agree upon a verdict. A parley took
place between the foreman and the Judge, who made inquiry about their
difficulties, answered two questions, and finally dismissed them to
further deliberations, urging them strongly to try to arrive at an
unanimous conclusion.

"I am willing to stay here till nightfa