Nevertheless he or the hounds he kept in leash, the lesser counsel, sought subtly to prejudice the jury's mind against Vivie by dragging in her parentage and the eccentricities of her own career. As thus:—
Counsel for the prosecution: "We have in you the mainspring of this rebellious movement..."
Vivie: "Have you?"
Counsel: "Are you not the daughter of the notorious Mrs. Warren?"
Vivie: "My mother's name certainly is Warren. For what is she notorious?"
Counsel: "Well—er—for being associated abroad with—er—a certain type of hotel synonymous with a disorderly house—"
Vivie: "Indeed? Have you tried them? My mother has managed the hotels of an English Company abroad till she retired altogether from the management some years ago. It was a Company in which Sir George Crofts—"
Judge, interposing: "We need not go into that—I think the Counsel for the prosecution is not entitled to ask such questions."
Counsel: "I submit, Me Lud, that it is germane to my case that the prisoner's upbringing might have—"
Vivie: "I am quite willing to give you all the information I possess as to my upbringing. My mother who has resided mainly at Brussels for many years preferred that I should be educated in England. I was placed at well-known boarding schools till I was old enough to enter Newnham. I passed as a Third Wrangler at Cambridge and then joined the firm of Fraser and Warren. As you seem so interested in my relations, I might inform you that I have not many. My mother's sister, Mrs. Burstall, the widow of Canon Burstall, resides at Winchester; my grandfather, Lieutenant Warren, was killed in the Crimea—or more likely died of neglected wounds owing to the shamefully misconducted, man-conducted Army Medical Service of those days. My mother in early days was better known as Miss Kate Vavasour. She was the intimate friend of a celebrated barrister who—"