THIS SLIGHT ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF HIS KIND SERVICES
IS TENDERED BY THE AUTHOR
NOTE
TO THE SECOND EDITION.
I take the opportunity of a second edition of this little sketch to point out a rather curious fact in connection with the numerous comments which were made in the press on the evidence presented against the heroine. My object in writing the story was, naturally, to so balance the evidence as to leave it open to my jury to return either verdict, and thus keep the reader in a state of mild suspense during the progress of the trial. How far I succeeded may be gathered from the following extracts:
‘A jury that required to deliberate at all in such a case ought to have been hanged.’—Brief.
‘The way in which the feeblest of cases is worked up to a verdict of guilty is a trifle ridiculous, and a slander on judge, bar, and even jury.’—Leeds Mercury.
‘It is absurd to suppose that upon such evidence any judge and jury could have convicted her of murder.’—Vanity Fair.
‘A tangle of circumstantial evidence which is supposed to be conclusive, but on which we feel confident that no English jury would convict.’—New Zealand Mail.
‘The prisoner is found guilty on what seems to us most insufficient evidence.’—Daily Chronicle.