"Thank you, sergeant, that's all I have to ask you."
Henry Smith-Assher subsided; and Ronnie--his voice vibrating with suppressed nerves, but all issues save the immediate driven from his mind--rose to cross-examine.
"I want you to tell me, sergeant, whether the original suggestion that the accused should make a statement came from you or from her?"
"From the accused."
"You cautioned her, of course?"
"Yes."
"Did she, at the time she made the statement, appear much upset?"
"Considerably, I should say."
"Ah." Ronnie---one hand spread-eagled on his brief, jingled with the other at the coins in his trouser-pocket. "Then I should not, perhaps, be putting it too strongly if I suggested that at the time she made this so-called confession the accused was in a state of hysteria?"
"She was considerably upset," repeated the witness stolidly.