"Well, just about then, yes." Miss Silcock had caught a look—such a look!—from her friend, and suddenly became reluctant.
"While he was on one leg?"
Miss Silcock, turned frightened and remorseful, was silent.
"Answer the question, please," said His Honour.
"Well, I suppose so. Yes."
"Thank you, Miss Silcock. No more questions."
Re-examination could not mend matters. The evidence for the defence came to very little. Counsel's speeches call for no record, and His Honour did little more than observe that, where Mr. Tiddes and Miss Silcock differed, the jury might see some reason to think that Miss Silcock's memory of the occurrence was likely to be the clearer and more trustworthy of the two. The jury thought so.
"We find that the conductor started the 'bus too soon, but that the plaintiff oughtn't to have been behaving like he was," said the foreman.
"That he wouldn't have tumbled off but for that, do you mean?" asked His Honour.
After a moment's consultation, the foreman answered "Yes."