XVII
MESSRS. WHITCOMB AND WHITCOMB
After the old woman had cleared the table of
the breakfast things and she had gone away, Northcote
sat nearly two hours in his easy chair at the
fire, whose grate had never been allowed to consume
so much fuel since it had been in his occupation,
and with the aid of his brief proceeded to rehearse
all the points of the case as they presented
themselves to him. Warmth, food, and rest had
overthrown his weariness, and his mind which in
its operations was habitually so energetic began to
shape and docket every conceivable aspect of the
matter that could be of the slightest service to the
accused. His reasoning was so amazingly copious
that he foresaw and proceeded immediately to
guard against a very real danger.
He might easily overdo it. The jury would not be men of education to whom fine points would appeal. Most probably they would be petty tradesmen whom it would be impossible to touch through the mind at all. He must take aim at their emotions. "I must use," he said to himself in his mental analysis, "not a word beyond three syllables, and I must keep to the language of the Bible as well as I can. All my little pieces of embroidery, all my little bravura passages must bear that singularly excellent model in mind; its power of touching the commonest clay is so unfailing. Hap-
