I may
shortly say that it was justified; another day's attendance
at the Elgin Courthouse shall not be compulsory here,
whatever it may have been there. Young Ormiston's commercial
probity is really no special concern of ours; the thing
which does matter, and considerably, is the special
quality which Lorne Murchison brought to the task of its
vindication, the quality that made new and striking
appeal, through every channel of the great occasion, to
those who heard him. It was that which reinforced and
comforted every friend Ormiston had in the courtroom,
before Lorne proceeded either to deal with the evidence
of the other side, or to produce any jot or tittle of
his own; and it was that which affected his distinguished
opponent to the special interest which afterward showed
itself so pleasantly superior to the sting of defeat.
The fact that the defence was quite as extraordinarily
indebted to circumstantial evidence as the prosecution
in no way detracted from the character of Lorne's personal
triumph; rather, indeed, in the popular view and Rawlins's,
enhanced it. There was in it the primitive joy of seeing
a ruffian knocked down with his own illegitimate weapons,
from the moment the dropped formula was proved to be an
old superseded one, and unexpected indication was produced
that Ormiston's room, as well as the bank vault, had been
entered the night of the robbery, to the more glorious
excitement of establishing Miss Belton's connection--not
to be quoted--with a cracksman at that moment being
diligently inquired for by the New York police with
reference to a dramatically bigger matter.
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