‘Ah, yes, sir, now you remind me, I remember. When she didn’t come down that morning, I said to Rebecca, “Very likely she’s had another bad night.”’
‘Another bad night? Then she was liable to insomnia?’
The witness stared.
‘I beg your pardon. I mean, she sometimes did suffer from want of sleep?’
‘She sometimes had bad nights, sir.’
‘Exactly. And you remembered she had been having them just before this?’
‘Well, no, sir; I can’t say as I do remember that.’
The barrister frowned impatiently.
‘Well, tell me this,’ he said: ‘do you know what she was in the habit of doing on these occasions, when she couldn’t get to sleep?’