She hesitated, twisting her handkerchief round and round in her fingers.
The solicitor moistened his lips with his tongue. “Your only hope, your one and only hope in this world, Mrs. Williams, is to speak the truth. I’m powerless to help you if you won’t be open. Don’t be afraid that everything you say now will come out in the police-court; it won’t necessarily be so at all—far from it. But I can judge of nothing unless I know every single thing.”
“I’ll tell you,” said Elsie, white to the lips.
“Why would you and Morrison not have gone away together? Were you afraid?”
“We had no money.”
“I see. Morrison’s pay was very small, and you had nothing but what your husband gave you?”
“Yes.”
“Whereas if you were a widow, you had reason to suppose that Williams would leave you comfortably provided for?”
“Yes.”
“Did it not occur to you, then, that his death would be a very convenient solution of the whole problem?”