“It might be so.”
“Or less.”
“I really can’t tell.”
“Then she was absent for half an hour at the outside, possibly.”
“I suppose so.”
“You may go now. I shall want you again. I proceed to summon Jane Redmore.”
This poor woman was in such a nervous condition that she would have fainted, had she not been provided with a chair. Nothing but what was of absolute importance could be drawn from her; which was that Kitty had not accompanied her beyond the gate from the Coombe premises, a distance of hardly three hundred yards.
“This,” said the solicitor, “is what I require. I will not trouble this feeble and timorous creature any longer. We have ascertained that the defendant, Kate Quarm, went out with Mrs. Redmore, under the pretext that she was going to accompany her home.”
“I do not think this point was established,” said the chairman.
“I beg your worship’s pardon. You are right. The next witness I shall call will establish the pretext without a doubt. I summon Pasco Pepperill!”