Q. And, being forestalled, was replaced possibly by an alternative suggestion, pointing to another way out of your difficulties?
A. I don’t know what you mean. It was just the culmination, as it were, of a desperate mood, and was regretted by me the next instant.
Q. Was it because of your desperate mood that you refused to be parted from your gun when you finally left the shoot and returned home?
A. No; but because I declined to be made to look a fool.
Q. I put it to you once more that you knew, when you went home, carrying against all persuasion, your gun with you, that the deceased would be waiting for you in the copse?
A. It is utterly false. I knew nothing about it.
Q. Very well. Now, as to the time of your meeting with the deceased. I have it stated on your sworn evidence that that was at three o’clock or thereabouts, and that after spending some ten minutes in conversation with her, you resumed your way to the house, which you reached at about 3.15, appearing then, according to the evidence of a witness, in a very agitated state.
A. I was upset, I own—naturally, under the circumstances.
Q. What circumstances?
A. Having just promised to do or not to do what would affect my whole life.