Page:Henry Northcote (IA henrynorthcote00snairich).pdf/173

 of one whom experience has rendered callous. From the leisurely candor and nonchalance of his manner a trial for murder was made to appear of rather less moment than the obtaining of a judgment in a county court. Such coolness contrasted so oddly with the young man's own perturbation that he was thrown completely out of conceit with himself.

"I suppose you played cricket, Whitcomb, at that highly fashionable seminary of yours?" said Northcote abruptly.

"I was a 'wet bob' myself," the solicitor rejoined; "but I think I know why you ask the question."

"It is like sitting with your pads on waiting for the fall of the next wicket when you are playing for your 'colors.'"

"I agree," said the solicitor, "that there are few things so disagreeable as that. But you are bound to have a wretched time until the case is over. It is for that reason that I continue to urge you to heed the counsels of experience."

"Well, I will see her first," said Northcote tenaciously.

That air of self-confidence which had tried the patience of the solicitor so extremely had vanished altogether from the manner of his youthful companion; for to Northcote's horror, every phase of the defence which, with so much elaboration, he had already prepared, every word of the memorable speech to the jury which had been packed away sentence by sentence had passed away out of his consciousness so completely that it might never have been in it. Pressing through the crowded