DONOHUE. Was this before or after you had tea with him?
HELEN (_seated in front of table_ R.). Yes. And he seemed terribly unhappy. He begged me to stay and talk to him for a few minutes, and I did. He asked me to have some tea with him, and I did that too.
DONOHUE. How charming! What did you do after tea?
(ROSALIE _is at the back of the chair in the front of the table_.)
HELEN. I came home and gave Helen her letters.
DONOHUE. My compliments, young woman. That was beautifully done. And she looks so innocent too.
DONOHUE. That I _don't_ is sufficient. Her story is preposterous. Your daughter's--
DONOHUE. Do you expect me to believe for a minute that a man like Lee would threaten your daughter, and then when a total stranger comes to him and asks for the letters, give them up without a word? Why, no jury in the world would believe your story.
WILLIAM. Jury? You're not going to arrest her?
DONOHUE (_below table_ R.). All the proof that I need. If she was innocent, why didn't she tell me all this when I first questioned her? Why did she wait until she knew that I had proof--that she had been in Spencer Lee's rooms?
DONOHUE. Women don't hang together like that.
ROSALIE (_upper end of table_ R.). Oh, they do, they do! The poor creatures!
DONOHUE (_down_ R.). They do not. I know them. (_He turns to_ WILLIAM.) She wasn't protecting your sister. She was protecting herself. She went for the letters, of course; and they had tea before she asked for them, not afterwards.
CROSBY (R.C. _to_ L. _of_ WILLIAM). How do you know that?
DONOHUE. She couldn't take tea with a man she's just killed.
CROSBY (_grabbing_ WILLIAM _by shoulders_). Billy!
WILLIAM (_breaks up stage a few steps, then down stage again_). I'm sorry. I didn't mean to lose my temper. I suppose we've got to take this thing calmly. Inspector, you honestly believe that Nelly killed this man?
DONOHUE. She was engaged to you--he had compromising letters she had written to him--he was threatening her with exposure--she went to get her letters. They had tea together--she's admitted that, after we proved it, and then when he wouldn't give up her letters she killed him. So much for the first murder. (_Turns away._) Now for the second: she was sitting next to Wales; he had already threatened her with exposure; in another minute the medium would have told her name as that of the person who had been at Spencer Lee's rooms. She pulled her hand away from his, struck and took his hand again. (_There is a pause._) Young man, you'll have a hard time tearing apart that chain of evidence.