“Oh, sir, my lord, your worship,” said the weeping Prudence, “I assure you I am speaking the truth. I know I can’t expect anyone to believe me, but indeed it is true.”
There was movement and merriment at the solicitors’ table, and a voice said in a whisper,
“Queer delusion! Mad as a hatter!”
Prudence heard the words, and drew herself up with some dignity.
“No,” she said, “I am not mad; it is no delusion. Will you allow me to make a plain statement, your worship? The child I handed to that wicked woman is my sister, and is older than I. We bought a bottle of the Water of Youth that we saw advertised in the Lady’s Pictorial. She should have drunk very little, but unfortunately she took an overdose, and you may believe me or not, but I found her changed into the infant you see in the middle of that same night.”
A roar of laughter drowned her words.
The counsel for the prosecution was very stern.
“I do not know, madam,” he said, “what may be the state of your mind, though I should advise your relatives to have it enquired into, but we cannot have the time of the court taken up in listening to such ridiculous and impossible statements. Remember, please, that you are on your oath, and give truthful replies to the questions put.”
“I am speaking the truth,” wailed Prudence. She was desperate, careless of consequences, driven into a corner. “You may put me in prison if you like, but I can say nothing else. My sister bought the Water from a Mrs. Geldheraus, of 194, Handel Street, on the 27th of June last, at three o’clock in the afternoon. She took a dose of it that same night, broke the bottle, I think, by accident, and unwilling to lose the wonderful water—at least, so I conclude, for I was not present—drank up all that was left. I heard her crying in the night, and found her turned into a baby. I could not keep her at the boarding-house, for the sake of my own good name. Everyone was prying and questioning about her, so I gave her to the prisoner to take care of, believing that she was a good and honest woman.”
“And where is this Mrs. Geldheraus now? Does she know you? Can she give any evidence as to your mental condition?”