'Yes, woman; don't echo me like that. You know what I mean.'
_'What!'_ The barrister assumed an expression of amaze.
'Then why didn't you say so all along? When you were before the magistrates, did you say anything about somebody being hurt?'
'You think so! Remember you are on your oath, please, and that I have a copy before me of what you actually did say before the magistrates. When you were before them, did you say a syllable about a sound as if somebody were being hurt?'
'I thought so. Did you tell the magistrate that you thought it was the sound of someone in troubled sleep?' Here the barrister read from his brief.
'And that you thought'--here he turned over the page at which he was looking and glanced at the top of the next, so as to give the impression that he was still reading her exact words--'that the sound came from Miss Owen's room?'
The judge was equally taken in. He had read the depositions, but had not remembered their contents clearly enough to check the barrister. Tressamer went to another point.
'I want to test your notion of ten minutes. Will you turn round, with your back to the clock, and tell me when one minute has passed, after I have said the word "Now."'
All the jurymen and most of the other persons in court took out their watches to check this experiment. The girl turned round, and Tressamer gave the word, 'Now!'
'Now!' said the witness, turning quickly round.
'Seventeen seconds exactly, my lord,' observed Tressamer. 'The witness's ten minutes may therefore be put down as three. You have told his lordship that the last set of footsteps you heard sounded heavy when they went downstairs. Will you swear that they did not sound equally heavy coming up?'
'I didn't ask you if you had noticed. Don't try and shirk my question, please. Will you pledge your oath that they weren't equally heavy coming upstairs?'
'Have you any reason, except your dislike of the prisoner, for suggesting that those footsteps were hers?'
'Really, Mr. Tressamer, you mustn't put it like that. She says that she didn't dislike the prisoner, and you must take her answer. I allow great latitude to counsel in your situation, but you must treat the witness fairly.'
Tressamer sat down, rather glad to leave his question unanswered, as the effect thereby produced on the jury's mind would be better than if the witness had had a chance of offering her grounds for suspicion.