There was silence in the quiet room.
“This is not a bit like I thought it was going to be. I don’t feel at all scared now! Why, I know Judge Blank! He used to pat me on the head every time he saw me!” whispered Elva to Wynnette.
“Hush, hush! you mustn’t talk here. Yes, it is quiet enough here, for that matter! Executions are quiet nearly always. We read, ‘The execution was conducted in a quiet and orderly manner,’ and yet a man has been hung and choked to death, or perhaps a woman,” whispered Wynnette, most inconsistently talking more than the sister whom she had rebuked for breaking silence.
“Oh, Wynnette! why will you talk of such horrid, horrid things?” demanded Elva, in a frightened tone.
“Because I am thinking of the price. I am counting the cost of sending that earthworm to Hades——Hush!”
The judge had finished reading the document in his hand, and turning slowly to the respondent, said:
“Mr. Force, you are charged herein, under oath, by Col. Angus Anglesea, of Anglewood Manor, England, with having, on the twentieth of December, 18—, forcibly abducted, and for three years past and up to this present, illegally detained the person of his wife, Odalite Anglesea—otherwise Odalite Force. What have you to say to this charge?”
“I say that it is absolutely false and malicious from beginning to end! The young lady here present, to whom he so insolently refers, is my daughter, Odalite Force, a maiden and a minor, under my own immediate protection,” replied Abel Force.
“Col. Angus Anglesea will step forward,” said the venerable judge.
The colonel arose, bowed and came up to the table.