Timms admitted the probability of its being so; then he entered into a longer and more minute detail of the state of the case. In the first place, he admitted that, in spite of all his own efforts to the contrary, the popular feeling was setting strong against their client. “Frank Williams,” as he called the saucy person who bore that name, had entered into the struggle might and main, and was making his customary impressions. “His fees must be liberal,” continued Timms, “and I should think are in some way dependent on the result; for I never saw the fellow more engaged in my life.” “This precious Code does allow such a bargain to be made between the counsel and his client, or any other bargain that is not downright conspiracy,” returned Dunscomb; “but I do not see what is to be shared, even should Mary Monson be hanged.” “Do not speak in that manner of so agreeable a person,” cried Timms, actually manifesting emotion—“it is unpleasant to think of. It is true, a conviction will not bring money to the prosecution, unless it should bring to light some of Mrs. Goodwin’s hoards.” Dunscomb shrugged his shoulders, and his associate proceeded with his narrative. Two of the reporters were offended, and their allusions to the cause, which were almost daily in their respective journals, were ill-natured, and calculated to do great harm, though so far covered as to wear an air of seeming candour. The natural effect of this “constant dropping,” in a community accustomed to refer everything to the common mind, had been “to wear away the stone.” Many of those who, at first, had been disposed to sustain the accused, unwilling to believe that one so young, so educated, so modest in deportment, so engaging in manners, and of the gentler sex, could possibly be guilty of the crimes imputed, were now changing their opinions, under the control of this potent and sinister mode of working on the public sentiment. The agents employed by Timms to counteract this malign influence had failed of their object; they working merely for money, while those of the other side were resenting what they regarded as an affront.