In the course of his examination on behalf of his son, of the medical officer and one or two other witnesses, he had very ably tried to confuse them on the subject of the hour at which Mrs.Owen was last known to be alive.
"He made a very great point of the fact that the usual morning's work was done throughout the house when the inmates arrived.

Was it conceivable, he argued, that a woman would do that kind of work overnight, especially as she was going to the theatre, and therefore would wish to dress in her smarter clothes?
It certainly was a very nice point levelled against the prosecution, who promptly retorted: Just as conceivable as that a woman in those circumstances of life should, having done her work, undress beside an open window at nine o'clock in the morning with the snow beating into the room.
"Now it seems that Mr.Greenhill senior could produce any amount of witnesses who could help to prove a conclusive _alibi_ on behalf of his son, if only some time subsequent to that fatal 2 a.m.the murdered woman had been seen alive by some chance passer-by.
"However, he was an able man and an earnest one, and I fancy the magistrate felt some sympathy for his strenuous endeavours on his son's behalf.

He granted a week's adjournment, which seemed to satisfy Mr.
Greenhill completely.
"In the meanwhile the papers had talked of and almost exhausted the subject of the mystery in Percy Street.

There had been, as you no doubt know from personal experience, innumerable arguments on the puzzling alternatives:-- "Accident?
"Suicide?
"Murder?
"A week went by, and then the case against young Greenhill was resumed.
Of course the court was crowded.

It needed no great penetration to remark at once that the prisoner looked more hopeful, and his father quite elated.
"Again a great deal of minor evidence was taken, and then came the turn of the defence.