hose two witnesses had made a great effort to
speak the truth;--an honest, painful effort to speak the truth, and
in no way to go beyond it. His gall had risen within him while he had
listened to Mr. Furnival, and witnessed his success in destroying the
presence of mind of that weak wretch who was endeavouring to do his
best in the cause of justice. And again, when Mr. Chaffanbrass had
seized hold of that poor dram, and used all his wit in deducing from
it a self-condemnation from the woman before him;--when the practised
barrister had striven to show that she was an habitual drunkard,
dishonest, unchaste, evil in all her habits, Graham had felt almost
tempted to get up and take her part. No doubt he had evinced this,
for Chaffanbrass had understood what was going on in his colleague's
mind, and had looked round at him from time to time with an air of
scorn that had been almost unendurable.

And then it had become the duty of the prosecutors to prove the
circumstances of the former trial. This was of course essentially
necessary, seeing that the offence for which Lady Mason was now on
her defence was perjury alleged to have been committed at that trial.
And when this had been done at considerable length by Sir Richard
Leatherham,--not without many interruptions from Mr. Furnival and
much assistance from Mr. Steelyard,--it fell upon Felix Graham to
show by cross-examination of Crook the attorney, what had been the
nature and effect of Lady Mason's testimony. As he arose to do this,
Mr. Chaffanbrass whispered into his ear, "If you feel yourself
unequal to it I'll take it up. I won't have her thrown over for any
etiquette,--nor yet for any squeamishness." To this Graham vouchsafed
no answer. He would not even reply by a look, but he got up and did
his work. At this point his conscience did not interfere with him,
for the questions which he asked referred to facts which had really
occurred. Lady Mason's testimony at that trial had been believed by
everybody. The gentleman who had cross-examined her on the part of
Joseph Mason, and who was now dead, had failed to shake her evidence.
The judge who tried the case had declared to the jury that it was
impossible to disbelieve her evidence. That judge was still living,
a poor old bedridden man, and in the course of this latter trial his
statement was given in evidence. There could be no doubt that at the
time Lady Mason's testimony was taken as worthy of all credit. She
had swor