“No,” dropped almost inaudibly from her white lips.
Mr. Edgar bowed with deep respect.
“Thank you, madam.”
As she left the box Bertie and the squire took her hands.
“You will leave the court now?” whispered Bertie.
She shook her head.
“I cannot! I cannot!” and they took her back to her old seat.
Mr. Sewell rose, and in a few words seemed to scatter Mr. Edgar’s defense to the winds. The evidence for the prosecution was complete, unanswerable. If there had ever been any doubt in the minds of the jury on the score of motive, Mr. Edgar had supplied it. Lord Clydesfold was in love with Miss Vanley, and married to this gypsy, and he, driven desperate, had rid himself of his lawful wife. He called upon the jury to find the prisoner guilty.
Then, amid a solemn silence, the judge arranged his notes and summed up.
It was evident to all that he put forward every iota in favor of the prisoner; but the awful evidence of his presence by the body, his connection with the deceased, the revolver, and his blood-stained clothes, the judge was compelled to give; and it was evidence which Mr. Edgar had not been able to overweigh by rebutting testimony.