“I have a duty to perform—a duty I shall not shrink from, but perform fearlessly. I think I shall be able to prove that the young man who is now under examination is innocent of the charge preferred against him.”
As he made these observations he thumped the table, and looked defiantly round the court.
“If it is essential for you to have an answer from the witness it would be wrong for us to interfere. Proceed with your examination,” said Lord Ethalwood.
The question was again put.
“He was my accepted suitor,” said Miss Fulford, after some hesitation.
“You were engaged to be married to him?”
“He would have married me if he had lived,” said the witness, bursting into tears.
Everybody in the court felt for her, everybody but her questioner.
The situation in which she was placed was indeed a most painful one.
But the pertinacious Mr. Slapperton was determined to make himself as conspicuous as possible.