His Other Wife: A Novel — page 313: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

ARRAIGNED. 305 strange that great excitement prevailed among the citizens of ——— when the day appointed for the case arrived. We shall enter the court-room at the moment when Mr. Tremont, the solicitor for the State, opens the indict- ment. The jury has been duly impaneled and charged with the prisoner, who has pleaded ‘‘not guilty.” There they sit confronting each other—the twelve who represent the country to whom the accused appeals for justice, and the man whom these are solemnly sworn to declare a verdict upon according to the evidence. Twelve calm, strong, earnest, resolute faces, that do not look as if they could be easily moved by impulse or any unimportant causes, are all turned full upon the prisoner, who sits at ease within the dock, and glances deliberately over his judges as if taking the measure of each man’s mental and moral caliber. Mathew Croft’s large, composed face gives out no sign of inward trepidation. It is true that anxiety and impris- onment have somewhat worn and whitened it, but so won- derfully controlled are its lineaments that no one present suspects that any effort has been necessary to bring to those stolid features that look of supreme assurance of safety. With the alert interest of a mere looker-on, he turns himself from the jurors to fix a steadfast regard upon the . counsel for the State, who thus addresses the court and jury Eomicbooks: (E(@) =}