Witness. "I did not understand that, but that he had been betting upon horses. There was money owing not only to Mr. Beach, but to other book-makers as well, and the prisoner wished Mr. Beach to arrange the whole matter. 'Those things are easily arranged,' I said to my mistress; 'all you have to do is to pay.' 'But supposing you haven't the money to pay?' asked my mistress. 'I thought Mr. Layton was a gentleman,' I said. 'There are poor gentlemen as well as rich gentlemen,' my mistress said, 'and my papa gets a lot of money out of all sorts of people.' That was true enough; I have heard him and his friends chuckling over it many times, and Mr. Beach used to call them a lot of something fools. I heard a great deal about 'swells,' as Mr. Beach called them, being ruined by backing horses, and I knew that that was the way he had grown rich. He used to say that he had got a lot of stuck-up swells under his thumb. 'I can arrange Mr. Layton's business with papa,' my mistress said; and when I found her practising songs at the piano, out of time and out of tune--for she had no ear for music--I knew that she was making up to him. It came about as she wished, and one night she told me she was the happiest woman in the world--that Mr. Layton had proposed and she had accepted him."
The Attorney-general. "Were there rejoicings in the house?"
Witness. "A good many big dinners were given, but I can't say much for the company. My mistress was sometimes very happy, and sometimes very miserable. To-day she complained that he was cold to her, to-morrow she would go on in the most ridiculous way because he gave her a flower, as though it was better than a big diamond."
The Attorney-general. "Did he seem to be wanting in attention to her during the courtship?"
Witness. "He wasn't a very warm lover, as far as I could see. But my mistress was so much in love that she put up with anything. He had only to give her a smile or a pleasant word, and you would think she was in heaven."
The Attorney-general. "How did the prisoner get along with Mr. Beach?"
Witness. "I know they had words on two or three occasions."
The Attorney-general. "About what?"
Witness. "About the settlements. My mistress told me, and she said her father was a screw."
The Attorney-general. "A screw! What was meant by the word?"