WAITING FOR THE VERDICT.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume V, Issue 1486, 18 February 1887, Page 3

WAITING FOR THE VERDICT.

Tho TonHon correspondent of the Dunedin Evening Star writes : — Never to her dying day will Lady Colin Campbell forget the hour of agony which she spent durnsr the seoond absence of tbe jury on Wednesday last. It was not merely the suspense, which ivsb killing, but Bhe became frenzied as she thought that but for the obstinacy of General Butler she would at that moment stand cleared before the I world of all the Abominable farago of surmise and suspicion which had been brought to bear Hgninat her. As it was, her fafr fame was dangling m the balance ! all t hrough the lmpenetraH-i madness of a man who, knowing her innocence, refuacd to do her the simple duty of speaking the truth as a soldier and a gentleman. From between closed lips came at intervals the muttered word "devil"; and I f<a r thafr., had the object of her burning wrath happened to appear at the moment, snd had any available weapon been within reach, it wonld have gone hard with him. Pacing up and down m the great hall of that elaborate failure — the new Law Courts — her f»ce, by tbe dim light of lowered electric lights, was terrible to look at. Her friends would no more have thought of speaking to or t»pproacM"j> her than they would have thought of intercepting a wonndod Hocesß, and her bro'her Neptune Blood and Lady Miles paced up and down together at a respectful distance, ever and snnn casting fuitlve and half-scared glances at the torturrd heroine of what Boemtd doomed to be an abortive trial. As a matter of fact, she need not, have been bo deeply agitated, as the jury wroll tho time considering not whether they oupht to convict her, but whether they ought to condemn Butler without exonerating Lady Colin. Finding such a pifco of hair-pplittfng could only end m a reductio ad absurdmn, they bad no o'hor choice but to reluctantly exonerato Tkitler, bo na not to condemn l)9r. Lady Colin went into Court with the fixed look of one m a dream, and indeed it was a drenm of agony ; but as soon as the verdict was announced, long-pent-up emotion found vent m a paesirmate burst of tears. Lady Milee thought she " coufd kiHB the foreman ;" and I daresay that if thnt functionary had been consulted he might Dot have been fouud wholly unsusceptible to the romance of the situa tion. Lrd Colin Campbell turned livid when the reault was announced, and immediately left the Cou t with the sympathising brethren who hud sat beside him during tho trial, and m all sortß of ways striven to show that they looked on the ca«o ac a family affair.

The Shunpao says there is a Oorean dwarf measuring two-anS-a-ha 1 f feet m height. His band is one foot long and his body is about the same length, and his legs measure five inohes only. The length of his feet is over a foot, and he is obliged to crawl m and out of his bouse. The Corean dwarf is 27 yeara of age, and is a far more wonderful oreature than Tom Thumb.