‘Guilty!’ The words were echoed through the court* and every eye for the moment was turned from the prisoner towards a young womfol, who was led fainting away as soon as that one great word of condemna tion fell from the foreman’s lips. He was a fine young fellow that stood in the dock. Hifl face did not betray a single sign of inclination to do other than that which ■«.. was true and right, and the public assem bledin the crowded court half-hoped that when the jury came back from their room that ho would be free—free to take the sweetheart, who was waiting to throw her arms about his neck in joy—free to clasp his father’s hand once more—free to faos the world as an honest man without a stain." But the evidence—oiroumstan ;tial, it is true—alas! strong enough to

condemn. Harry Barton, who stood there in the prisoner’s dock waiting for the judge to tell him his fate, had been for five or six years in tho employ of a large firm of jewellers in the West End, whose business was almost exclusively with the wealthy. He lived at home with his father, and everybody in the neighbourhood of Brix ton thought father and son as honest as the sun and as free as the daylight. Annie —pretty Annie, as her friends and neighbours called her—was the only child of, John Barton’s dead brother, and when he died, fifteen years ago, John had stood by bis bedside and said that little Annie should always find a home beneath his roof, and one day—who knew P—she might learn to love bis own boy Harry, and|they might become man and wife. And it proved to be so, for the love that had been born in their hearts as children became greater and greater as tho years went on, and now that Harry was five and-twenty, and little Annie —always little Annie—wasjustentering upon her woman hood, they had declared their troth, had made John Barton happy, were full of joy themselves, and their wedding-day was not far off. Then came this awful blow. It was .Harry Burton’s business to deliver to his employers’—Messrs. Fraser and Co. — aristocratic customers the jewels that they had ordered. He was trusted in every way —hundreds, indeed thousands of pounds’ worth of diamouds passed through bis hands. 