"He means——" began Angel.
"I mean," interrupted the lawyer, "do you want to take back the story you told me about Rose Légère? This case is on the calendar for to-morrow, so if you mean to take back what you said, you had better do it now."
"It won't get me into no trouble?"
The young man raised his eyebrows.
"What would be the use?" he inquired. "No, it won't get you into any trouble."
"Then I'll take it back," said Violet.
"You'll have to be sworn, you know."
"She don' minda that," said Angel. "Do you, Violet?"
The girl shook her head, and a clerk was called and administered an oath so rapidly that Violet could understand no word of it.
"You're doing this of your own free will—just because you want to?" resumed the lawyer, donning his professional air, and seeming to become infected with the clerk's rapidity of utterance. "You are not swayed by any promise of pecuniary reward—that is because you're paid for it? And there has been no force or threat used to compel you to do it—I mean you haven't been told you'd be hurt if you backed down?"