"Then Mrs. Newbold believed her friend—Miss Hildreth—to be guilty of murder?"
Clear and sharp came the answer:
"No, I do not."
"What then did Mrs. Newbold believe?"
And Esther, her face flushing and paling alternately, her blue eyes fixed dauntlessly upon her tormenter, replied, that while forced to admit that Patricia Hildreth and the person purporting to be Adèle Lamien were to her certain knowledge one and the same, to the best of her belief this was not the whole truth. Miss Hildreth had reasons, grave reasons, for what she had done, and she, Mrs. Newbold, had consented to help her, never foreseeing the grave and terrible consequences that might ensue. She was not at liberty to state those reasons; but she was as certain as she stood before them then, that Miss Hildreth was absolutely guiltless of the crime of which she was accused.
"How did Mrs. Newbold account for the two handkerchiefs marked A. de L.?"
"She could not account for them."
"Had Miss Hildreth ever spoken to her concerning her life abroad—especially her life at St. Petersburg?"
"No; Miss Hildreth had always been uncommunicative on all such topics."
This closed Mrs. Newbold's statement; and Esther could not but feel, as her husband handed her to a seat not far from Patricia, that she had done more to injure her friend's cause than to help it.