The Nine of Hearts: A Novel

by B. L. Farjeon

Prisoner. "Are you aware that my life is at stake?"

Witness. "Yes."

Prisoner. "And that the evidence you have given is almost, if not quite, fatal against me?"

Witness. "I do not know anything about that. I have said only what is true."

Prisoner. "Is it not possible that, having a prejudice against me, you may have allowed your imagination to warp your reason?"

Witness. "If by that you mean that I am inventing things against you, it is not true. I have only told what I heard."

Prisoner. "And you heard my wife, when I left the room, call after me the words you have already given in evidence, to the effect that she believed I wished her dead, but that she would not die yet, unless I killed her?"

Witness. "I heard her say so."

Prisoner. "And that she called after me that I was a villain?"

Witness. "I heard her say so."