"Wilkie Collins - The Evil Genius" - читать интересную книгу автора (Collins Wilkie)

a general reluctance to be the person who speaks first.
It was the foreman's duty, under these circumstances, to treat his deliberative
brethren as we treat our watches when they stop: he wound the jury up and set
them going.
"Gentlemen," he began, "have you formed any decided opinion on the case--thus
far?"
Some of them said "Yes," and some of them said "No." The little drowsy man said
nothing. The fretful invalid cried, "Go on!" The nervous juryman suddenly rose.
His brethren all looked at him, inspired by the same fear of having got an
orator among them. He was an essentially polite man; and he hastened to relieve
their minds. "Pray don't be alarmed, gentlemen: I am not going to make a speech.
I suffer from fidgets. Excuse me if I occasionally change my position." The
hungry juryman (who dined early) looked at his watch. "Half-past four," he said.
"For Heaven's sake cut it short." He was the fattest person present; and he
suggested a subject to the inattentive juryman who drew pictures on his
blotting-paper. Deeply interested in the progress of the likeness, his neighbors
on either side looked over his shoulders. The little drowsy man woke with a
start, and begged pardon of everybody. The fretful invalid said to himself,
"Damned fools, all of them!" The patient foreman, biding his time, stated the
case.
"The prisoner waiting our verdict, gentlemen, is the Honorable Roderick
Westerfield, younger brother of the present Lord Le Basque. He is charged with
willfully casting away the British bark John Jerniman, under his command, for
the purpose of fraudulently obtaining a share of the insurance money; and
further of possessing himself of certain Brazilian diamonds, which formed part
of the cargo. In plain words, here is a gentleman born in the higher ranks of
life accused of being a thief. Before we attempt to arrive at a decision, we
shall only be doing him justice if we try to form some general estimate of his
character, based on the evidence--and we may fairly begin by inquiring into his
relations with the noble family to which he belongs. The evidence, so far, is
not altogether creditable to him. Being at the time an officer of the Royal
Navy, he appears to have outraged the feelings of his family by marrying a
barmaid at a public-house."
The drowsy juryman, happening to be awake at that moment, surprised the foreman
by interposing a statement. "Talking of barmaids," he said, "I know a curate's
daughter. She's in distressed circumstances, poor thing; and she's a barmaid
somewhere in the north of England. Curiously enough, the name of the town has
escaped my memory. If we had a map of England--" There he was interrupted,
cruelly interrupted, by one of his brethren.
"And by what right," cried the greedy juryman, speaking under the exasperating
influence of hunger--"by what right does Mr. Westerfield's family dare to
suppose that a barmaid may not be a perfectly virtuous woman?"
Hearing this, the restless gentleman (in the act of changing his position) was
suddenly inspired with interest in the proceedings. "Pardon me for putting
myself forward," he said, with his customary politeness. "Speaking as an
abstainer from fermented liquors, I must really protest against these allusions
to barmaids."
"Speaking as a consumer of fermented liquors," the invalid remarked, "I wish I
had a barmaid and a bottle of champagne before me now."
Superior to interruption, the admirable foreman went on: