She gives it in a firm, clear voice, without hesitation or faltering. She tells the facts as we have described them in a former chapter. A shudder runs through the court at their mere recital. Is it possible that such horrors reflect the truth? Sir Anthony smiles superciliously.
“Hallucination,” he mutters audibly. “Many women are subject to it.”
She looks at him contemptuously, but scorns to further notice the great man’s brutality.
“You swear, Mrs. de Lara, that what you have stated is absolutely correct?”
“Absolutely,” she answers calmly; “I swear it.”
Cross-examined by the Attorney-General.
“You will swear that you were not in the habit of receiving Lord Westray, Mrs. de Lara? Now, pray be careful, very careful.”
Again the same contemptuous glance, as she proudly replies, “I swear it.”
“And you mean to say that you never sent Rita Vernon with a letter to Mr. Trackem, or left a note for Victoire Hester on the day of Lord Westray’s murder? Again I ask you to be careful.”
“I did not!” is her fierce reply.