Thence he passed to the history of Augusta's relation with
the firm of Meeson and Co., which, as nearly everybody in the court, not
excepting the Judge, had read "Jemima's Vow," was very interesting to his
auditors. Then he went on to the scene between Augusta and the publisher,
and detailed how Eustace had interfered, which interference had led to a
violent quarrel, resulting in the young man's disinheritance. Passing on,
he detailed how the publisher and the published had taken passage in the
same vessel, and the tragic occurrences which followed down to Augusta's
final rescue and arrival in England, and finally ended his spirited
opening by appealing to the Court not to allow its mind to be influenced
by the fact that since these events the two chief actors had become
engaged to be married, which struck him, he said, as a very fitting
climax to so romantic a story.
At last he ceased, and amidst a little buzz of applause, for the speech
had really been a very fine one, sat down. As he did so he glanced at the
clock. He had been on his legs for nearly two hours, and yet it seemed to
him but a very little while. In another moment he was up again and had
called his first witness--Eustace Meeson.
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