Q. Did you twit her, possibly, with being there for an assignation?
A. Something of the sort I might.
Q. And she admitted it?
A. Of course not. (Laughter.)
Q. What else, would you mind saying?
A. I understood from her that she had come out to escape the company in the kitchen. It seemed there had been a row regarding her between Cleghorn our butler and the prisoner, and she wanted to get away from them both. She said that the foreigner had paid her unwelcome attentions, and had tried to kiss her, for which she had boxed his ears, and that ever since she had gone in fear of her life from him. (Sensation.) I took it more for a joke than a formal complaint, and did not suppose her to be serious. It did not occur to me that she was really frightened of the man, or I should have taken steps for her protection.
Q. And that was all?
A. All that was essential.
Q. Thank you, Mr. Kennett. I will not trouble you any further.
Witness turned and retired. His evidence had yielded something of the unexpected, in its incredulous little outburst and in its conclusion. As to the first, it was patent that Counsel’s object in putting the question which had provoked it was to suggest maddened jealousy as a motive for the crime on the part of some one to whom the girl’s actions had become suddenly visible through her movement towards the witness, between whom and herself had possibly occurred some philandering passages. Such, at least, from the witness’s own implied admission of a certain freedom in his conversation with the deceased, would appear a justifiable assumption. His final statement—though legally inadmissible—inasmuch as it supplied the motive with a name, caused a profound stir in Court.