“Mr. Graham gave a large ball on October 23rd.  Special interest is attached to this ball, from the fact that for this occasion Lady Donaldson insisted that David’s future wife should wear the magnificent diamonds which were soon to become hers.

“They were, it seems, superb, and became Miss Crawford’s stately beauty to perfection.  The ball was a brilliant success, the last guest leaving at four a.m.  The next day it was the universal topic of conversation, and the day after that, when Edinburgh unfolded the late editions of its morning papers, it learned with horror and dismay that Lady Donaldson had been found murdered in her room, and that the celebrated diamonds had been stolen.

“Hardly had the beautiful little city, however, recovered from this awful shock, than its newspapers had another thrilling sensation ready for their readers.

“Already all Scotch and English papers had mysteriously hinted at ‘startling information’ obtained by the Procurator Fiscal, and at an ‘impending sensational arrest.’

“Then the announcement came, and every one in Edinburgh read, horror-struck and aghast, that the ‘sensational arrest’ was none other than that of Miss Edith Crawford, for murder and robbery, both so daring and horrible that reason refused to believe that a young lady, born and bred in the best social circle, could have conceived, much less executed, so heinous a crime.  She had been arrested in London at the Midland Hotel, and brought to Edinburgh, where she was judicially examined, bail being refused.”

CHAPTER XV

A TERRIBLE PLIGHT

“Little more than a fortnight after that, Edith Crawford was duly committed to stand her trial before the High Court of Justiciary.  She had pleaded ‘Not Guilty’ at the pleading diet, and her defence was entrusted to Sir James Fenwick, one of the most eminent advocates at the Criminal Bar.

“Strange to say,” continued the man in the corner after a while, “public opinion from the first went dead against the accused.  The public is absolutely like a child, perfectly irresponsible and wholly illogical; it argued that since Miss Crawford had been ready to contract a marriage with a half-demented, deformed creature for the sake of his L100,000 she must have been equally ready to murder and rob an old lady for the sake of L50,000 worth of jewellery, without the encumbrance of so undesirable a husband.

“Perhaps the great sympathy aroused in the popular mind for David Graham had much to do with this ill-feeling against the accused.  David Graham had, by this cruel and dastardly murder, lost the best—­if not the only—­friend he possessed.  He had also lost at one fell swoop the large fortune which Lady Donaldson had been about to assign to him.

“The deed of gift had never been signed, and the old lady’s vast wealth, instead of enriching her favourite nephew, was distributed—­since she had made no will—­amongst her heirs-at-law.  And now to crown this long chapter of sorrow David Graham saw the girl he loved accused of the awful crime which had robbed him of friend and fortune.