"Indeed I do. Why shouldn't I?" said Bessie.
"Think again before it is too late. Do you still say that you have never had a child, and therefore never killed and never buried one?"
"Certainly I say so," said Bessie. "I don't know what you are talking of."
"Constable," said the Attorney, turning to Cain, "open your parcel."
There was a whispering among the spectators in Court, while the constable was cutting the string and opening the brown-paper parcel. The Deemster was shuddering, Gell's lower lip was trembling, and Fenella (who was sitting, as before, in front of the dock) was breathing deeply. The prisoner alone was unmoved. The sun (it was now going round to the West) was shining down on her from the lantern light. It lit up with pitiful vividness her thin white face with its look of confidence and contempt.
"Do you know what this is?" asked the Attorney, holding up a portion of a white silk scarf.
Bessie started as if she had seen a ghost. Then, recovering herself and turning her eyes away, she said, remembering what Gell had told her,
"I know nothing about it."
"You have never seen it before?"
"I know nothing about it."