"Nothing whatever."
There was a pause. Sir Robert's face still wore an expectant look. He was obviously waiting for a reply.
It came at length, and every person in the court as they heard it smiled, frowned, or sighed according to their several temperaments.
"I really don't know why I didn't tell him."
"Let me suggest a reason. You didn't tell because you didn't want him to know?"
"I don't think that is true," Peggy answered.
"Come, Mrs. Admaston; you heard the evidence of the detective?"
"Yes, I did."
"He has told the jury that when the telephone message came through from your husband you were in the room; that you stayed by and heard the co-respondent tell your husband that Lord Ellerdine was staying at the hotel—a deliberate lie; and that you refused to speak to your husband. Is that true?"
The answer, the miserable answer, came in the faintest of voices from the box: