“I haven’t asked you for the contents of the letter. Is that the only communication that you received from her during those years in New York?”
“With the exception of Christmas cards, I heard nothing more for a little over two years. Then she began to write fairly regularly.”
“Mr. Thorne, were you on the estate of Orchards at any time on June 19, 1926?”
“I was.”
There was a sudden stir and ripple throughout the court room. “Now!” said the ripple. “Now! At last!”
“At what time?”
“I couldn’t state the exact time at which I arrived, but I believe that it must have been shortly after nine in the evening.”
The ripples broke into little waves. Nine o’clock—nine——
“And at what time did you leave?”
“That I can tell you exactly. I left the main house at Orchards at exactly ten minutes to ten.”