ecords, though young
Philip could not read them--the face, he thought, of a man who had had
much to bear. Was it the same man who had fixed so strange a gaze upon
himself at the theatre? And what interest could this man have in the
trial that was going on?

The accused at the bar was certainly not of a kind to arouse the
interest which sprang into being at sight of this worn and noble hero.
He had the air of a comfortable man of business, a man evidently well
off, surprised at once and indignant to find himself there, sometimes
bursting with eagerness to explain, sometimes leaning back with an air
of affected contempt--not a good man in trouble, as Philip would have
liked to think him, nor a criminal fully conscious of what might be
awaiting him; but a man of the first respectability, indignant and
incredulous that anything should be brought against him. Philip felt
himself able to take no interest whatever in Mr. Brown.

It was not till he had gone through all these surprises and observations
that he began to note what was being said. Philip was not learned in the
procedure of the law, nor did he know anything about the case; but it
became vaguely apparent to him after awhile that the immediate question
concerned the destruction of the books of a joint-stock company, of
which Brown was the manager, an important point which the prosecution
had some difficulty in bringing home to him. After it had been proved
that the books had been destroyed, and that so far as was known it
was to Brown's interest alone to destroy them, the evidence as to what
had been seen on the evening on which this took place suddenly took a
new turn, and seemed to introduce a new actor on the scene. Some one
had been seen to enter the office in the twilight who could not be
identified with Brown; whom, indeed, even Philip, with his boyish
interest in the novelty of the proceedings, vaguely perceived to be
another man. The action of the piece, so to speak (for it was like a
play to Philip), changed and wavered here--and he began to be sensible
of the character of the different players in it. The counsel for the
prosecution was a well-known and eminent barrister, one of the most
noted of the time, a man before whom witnesses trembled, and even the
Bench itself was sometimes known to quail. That this was the case on the
present occasion Philip vaguely perceived. There were points continually
arising which the opposing counsel made objections to, appe