“Your Honour——”
“Try to confine yourself directly to the question, Miss Page.”
“Yes, Your Honour.” The meek contrition of the velvet-voiced Miss Page was a model for all future witnesses.
“Was Mr. Ives fond of the children?”
“Oh, yes, he adored——”
“I object to that question, Your Honour.” The preliminary tossings had resolved themselves into an actual upheaval this time and all of the two hundred and fifty pounds of Mr. Lambert were on his feet.
“Very well, Mr. Lambert, you may be heard. You object on what grounds?”
“I object to this entire line of questioning as absolutely immaterial, incompetent and irrelevant. How is Miss Page qualified to judge as to Mr. Ives’s affection for his children? And even if her opinion had the slightest weight, what has his affection for his children got to do with the murder of this girl? For reasons which I don’t pretend to grasp, the learned counsel for the prosecution is simply wasting the time of this court.”
“You might permit the Court to be the judge of that.” Judge Carver’s fine dark eyes rested somewhat critically on the protestant bulk before him. “Mr. Farr, you may be heard.”
“Of course, Your Honour, with all due deference to my brilliant opponent’s fireworks, he’s talking pure nonsense. Miss Page is perfectly——”