"Very well," said Mr. Cavendish, "since the plaintiff's counsel is so difficult to please! You are the owner of these patents, are you?"
"I am, sir."
"You have been insane, have you sir?"
"I suppose I have been, sir. I was very ill for a long time, and have no doubt that I suffered from mental alienation."
"What is your memory of things that occurred immediately preceding your insanity?"
Mr. Benedict and his counsel saw the bearings of this question, at once, but the witness would no more have lied than he would have stolen, or committed murder. So he answered: "It is very much confused, sir."
"Oh, it is! I thought so! Then you cannot swear to the events immediately preceding your attack?"
"I am afraid I cannot, sir, at least, not in their order or detail."
"No! I thought so!" said Mr. Cavendish, in his contemptuous manner, and rasping voice. "I commend your prudence. Now, witness, if a number of your neighbors should assure you that, on the day before your attack, you did a certain thing, which you do not remember to have done, how should you regard their testimony?"
"If they were credible people, and not unfriendly to me, I should be compelled to believe them."