Then of course would come the speeches of the great actors in the drama, the icy anger of Parnell, the shuffling apologies of Pigott.

But we should feel that the record was incomplete without another touch which in practice has so much to do with the confusion of such a question.

Bottinius and Hyacinthus de Archangelis, the two cynical professional pleaders, with their transparent assumptions and incredible theories of the case, would be represented by two party journalists; one of whom was ready to base his case either on the fact that Parnell was a Socialist or an Anarchist, or an Atheist or a Roman Catholic; and the other of whom was ready to base his case on the theory that Lord Salisbury hated Parnell or was in league with him, or had never heard of him, or anything else that was remote from the world of reality.

These are the kind of little touches for which we must always be on the look-out in Browning.

Even if a digression, or a simile, or a whole scene in a play, seems to have no point or value, let us wait a little and give it a chance.