“Who sewed it on?”
“I did.”
“Are you in the habit of sewing on your buttons yourself?”
Although the judge did not press this question by his tone, nor by the form in which he made it, Florentin saw the strength of the accusation that his reply would make against him.
“Sometimes,” he said.
“And yet, on returning home, you found your mother, you told me. Was there any reason why she could not sew this button on for you?”
“I did not ask her to do it.”
“But when she saw you sewing it, did she not take the needle from your hands?”
“She did not see me.”
“Why?”