Only I heard the words themselves, cold,
earnest words, fall one by one from her lips like a sentence of
doom--and there was life in the thing, life and death! When she had
finished, the whole court was in a state of tension. Everyone was
leaning forward. It would be the most piquant, the most wonderful
cross examination every heard--the woman lying to save her honor and
to achieve her vengeance; the man on trial for his life. Wingrave
stood up. Lady Ruth raised her veil, and looked at him from the
witness box. There was the most intense silence I ever realized. Who
could tell the things which flashed from one to the other across the
dark well of the court; who could measure the fierce, silent scorn
which seemed to blaze from his eyes, as he held her there--his slave
until he chose to give the signal for release? At last he looked away
towards the judge, and the woman fell forward in the box gasping, a
crumpled up, nerveless heap of humanity.
"'My lord,' he said, 'I have no questions to ask this witness!'
"Everyone staggered. Wingrave's few friends were horrified. After that
there was, of course, no hope for him. He got fifteen years' penal
servitude."
Like an echo from that pent-up murmur of feeling which had rippled
through the crowded court many years ago, his little group of auditors
almost gasped as Lovell left his place and strolled down the room.
Aynesworth laid his hand upon his shoulder.
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