But in considering what weight you are to give to this statement you will bear in mind that when the testator set out for Paris after his interview with Doctor Norbury he left Mr.Jellicoe without any information as to his specific destination, his address in Paris, or the precise date when he should return, and that Mr.Jellicoe was unable to tell us where the testator went or what was his business.
Mr.Jellicoe was, in fact, for a time without any means of tracing the testator or ascertaining his whereabouts.
"The evidence of the housemaid, Dobbs, and of Mr.Hurst is rather confusing.

It appears that the testator came to the house, was shown into a certain room, and when looked for later was not to be found.

A search of the premises showed that he was not in the house, whence it seems to follow that he must have left it; but since no one was informed of his intention to leave, and he had expressed the intention of staying to see Mr.Hurst, his conduct in thus going away surreptitiously must appear somewhat eccentric.

The point that you have to consider, therefore, is whether a person who is capable of thus departing in a surreptitious and eccentric manner from a house, without giving notice to the servants, is capable also of departing in a surreptitious and eccentric manner from his usual places of resort without giving notice to his friends or thereafter informing them of his whereabouts.
"The questions, then, gentlemen, that you have to ask yourselves before deciding on your verdict are two: first, Are the circumstances of the testator's disappearance and his continued absence incongruous with his habits and personal peculiarities as they are known to you?
and second, Are there any facts which indicate in a positive manner that the testator is dead?
Ask yourselves these questions, gentlemen, and the answers to them, furnished by the evidence that you have heard, will guide you to your decision." Having delivered himself of the above instructions, the judge applied himself to the perusal of the will with professional gusto, in which occupation he was presently disturbed by the announcement of the foreman of the jury that a verdict had been agreed upon.
The judge sat up and glanced at the jury-box, and when the foreman proceeded to state that "We find no sufficient reason for presuming the testator, John Bellingham, to be dead," he nodded approvingly.

Evidently that was his opinion, too, as he was careful to explain when he conveyed to Mr.Loram the refusal of the Court to grant the permission applied for.
The decision was a great relief to me, and also, I think, to Miss Bellingham; but most of all to her father, who, with instinctive good manners, since he could not suppress a smile of triumph, rose hastily and stumped out of the Court, so that the discomfited Hurst should not see him.