"Is it your property still?"
"It is not."
"You sold it?"
"No."
"If you did not sell, how is it that you do not own it?"
"It was sold for me—in spite of me."
The judge smiled, the people smiled, the jury smiled. Truly, though a life-history was being exposed with incredible slowness—"like pulling teeth," as the Young Doctor said—it was being touched off with laughter.
"You were in debt?"
"Quite."
"How did you get into debt?"