'A very good reason, too. Now there has been evidence to the effect that Mr. Trevanion admired your cousin Kate; that he paid her a good deal of attention?'
'Yes; no doubt he did.'
'You must excuse my asking you, but it is necessary to come to a correct understanding; was there any rivalry or jealous feeling between you?'
'Not the slightest. He was polite—he couldn't be otherwise; but he never cared two straws about me, or any one but Kate, though I was his real friend; but he never knew it.'
'Was there not a letter from Kate Lawless sent by your hand to him, after she had left for Balooka?'
'Yes; but she had to get some one to write it for her. I had a great mind not to deliver it. I wish now that I never had, and all this might have been saved.'
'That will do, Miss Esther. Stay—one more question. You had never, of course, seen Mr. Trevanion in company with your cousins before you came to Ballarat?'
It occasionally happens that an advocate, in putting a question which he believes to be perfectly innocuous, makes some fatal mistake which damages the whole of his previous evidence. The witness changed colour, and hesitated, then appeared to wish to avoid answering the question.
Mr. England divined the situation. 'It's of no consequence. The witness is not strong. You can go down, Miss Lawless.'
But it was too late. Dayrell was not the man to overlook a false move. 'I request that the witness's answer may be taken.'