The Young Clementina by D. E. Stevenson Page B

of intense dejection. There were three women in the jury; one of them was quite old with untidy white hair straggling from beneath a black felt hat, the other two were younger, somewhat about my own age I thought.
    Garth’s counsel was a tall, aristocratic-looking man with a slow, resonant voice and an air of dignity enhanced by his wig and gown. I tried to follow what he was saying, but there was an intermittent booming in my ears which prevented me from hearing his words distinctly. I heard a phrase here and there.
    â€œâ€¦ on the eighteenth of March the respondent went to her sister’s flat in France Street…She telephoned to the petitioner saying she intended to stay the night with her sister…the petitioner’s suspicions were aroused…”
    I lost the next part, wondering why. Why should the petitioner’s suspicions have been aroused? The petitioner was Garth of course. Garth was suspicious because Kitty was spending the night with me—strange! And yet after all was it so strange? Kitty had never done such a thing before, never shown any desire to do such a thing before. I had thought it queer myself. My brain could not reason any further nor follow out the implications or possible implications of Garth’s suspicions, the thoughts slipped through it like water out of a sieve.
    â€œâ€¦and so, my lord, I propose to show that the respondent did not spend the night with her sister…” But that was nonsense of course. Kitty had slept in my bed and I had slept on the couch in the sitting room. What on earth did the man mean by saying she “had not spent the night with her sister?” I looked at Kitty and saw that she was leaning forward watching the speaker with breathless interest, her face looked pinched and drawn, and there was a patch of red in the middle of her cheek. I looked up at the witness-box and saw that Garth had appeared there, he was standing up very straight and his face was in shadow, his eyes were like black holes in the pallor of his face. When he spoke in answer to counsel’s questions his voice seemed very loud—much too loud to be clear—he did not seem able to modulate his voice to the acoustics of the court. Garth was nervous; he was hating it all, hating the publicity of the whole thing, hating the questions which were probing into his life and laying it bare for all the world to see. Oh, Garth, why did you do it; why did you take this dreadful step?
    The jury was hanging on Garth’s words. One of the younger women had her mouth open—but she was rather a nice-looking woman in spite of her unbecoming expression—I wondered if she were married, and, if so, whether it was very inconvenient for her to leave her home for a whole day. Perhaps she was happily married—she had a happy face—and thought the whole affair unnecessary and rather disgusting; or perhaps she was unhappily married—but I did not think so—and her sympathies were roused by the matrimonial troubles of Garth and Kitty.
    Garth’s counsel was finished. He folded himself in his black gown like a huge black bird closing its wings, and sat down. Kitty’s counsel rose with a rustle of silk and papers to cross-examine Garth. I had heard a great deal about this man from Kitty and I looked at him with interest. Mr. Corrieston had told us that he was very clever and that we were lucky to get him. I wondered if we were. He had a flat pale face and prominent teeth, even his wig could not dignify him. Mr. Amber seemed to me a very mediocre sort of person—an entirely different and inferior class of person from Garth’s counsel.
    Garth was leaning forward now; he looked stern and somewhat defiant. Question and answer followed each other rapidly.
    â€œYou were suspicious when you heard that the respondent intended to stay the night with her sister?”
    â€œI was.”
    â€œWhy?”
    â€œBecause, for one thing, she rarely