"Silence!" warned the clerk.

"And after that?"

The girl shook her head and there came into her face a look of terrible sadness.

"I don't know what happened after that for a long time. I was very ill and—for years I did not remember these things."

"You mean that for years you did not remember what you have just testified?"

"Yes, that is what I mean."

The room was so hushed in expectation that the tension was like physical pain.

"You did not remember your mother during these years?"

"No."

"Not even her name?"