“‘Then, after a few minutes’ waiting, you gave his lordship the card?  What happened then?’

“‘’Is lordship didn’t seem at all pleased,’ said Mr. Chipps with much guarded dignity; ’but finally he said:  “Show him into the library, Chipps, I’ll see him,” and he got up from the card table, saying to the gentlemen:  “Go on without me; I’ll be back in a minute or two.”

“’I was about to open the door for ’is lordship when my lady came into the room, and then his lordship suddenly changed his mind like, and said to me:  “Tell that man I’m busy and can’t see him,” and ’e sat down again at the card table.  I went back to the ’all, and told the party ’is lordship wouldn’t see ’im.  ’E said:  “Oh! it doesn’t matter,” and went away quite quiet like.’

“‘Do you recollect at all at what time that was?’ asked one of the jury.

“’Yes, sir, while I was waiting to speak to ’is lordship I looked at the clock, sir; it was twenty past ten, sir.’

“There was one more significant fact in connection with the case, which tended still more to excite the curiosity of the public at the time, and still further to bewilder the police later on, and that fact was mentioned by Chipps in his evidence.  The knife, namely, with which Charles Lavender had been stabbed, and which, remember, had been left in the wound, was now produced in court.  After a little hesitation Chipps identified it as the property of his master, Lord Arthur Skelmerton.

“Can you wonder, then, that the jury absolutely refused to bring in a verdict against George Higgins?  There was really, beyond Lord Arthur Skelmerton’s testimony, not one particle of evidence against him, whilst, as the day wore on and witness after witness was called up, suspicion ripened in the minds of all those present that the murderer could be no other than Lord Arthur Skelmerton himself.

“The knife was, of course, the strongest piece of circumstantial evidence, and no doubt the police hoped to collect a great deal more now that they held a clue in their hands.  Directly after the verdict, therefore, which was guardedly directed against some person unknown, the police obtained a warrant and later on arrested Lord Arthur in his own house.”

“The sensation, of course, was tremendous.  Hours before he was brought up before the magistrate the approach to the court was thronged.  His friends, mostly ladies, were all eager, you see, to watch the dashing society man in so terrible a position.  There was universal sympathy for Lady Arthur, who was in a very precarious state of health.  Her worship of her worthless husband was well known; small wonder that his final and awful misdeed had practically broken her heart.  The latest bulletin issued just after his arrest stated that her ladyship was not expected to live.  She was then in a comatose condition, and all hope had perforce to be abandoned.

“At last the prisoner was brought in.  He looked very pale, perhaps, but otherwise kept up the bearing of a high-bred gentleman.  He was accompanied by his solicitor, Sir Marmaduke Ingersoll, who was evidently talking to him in quiet, reassuring tones.