Part 59 (1/2)
”You dare say that?” cried Sir John, and stared at her in incredulous anger ”My God! You dare say that?”
”I dare and do,” she answered hi him back look for look
Lord Henry sat back in his chair, and tugged gently at his ashen tuft of beard, his florid face overcast and thoughtful There was so here he did not understand at all ”Mistress Rosaravity of your words You are virtually accusing one who is no longer able to defend himself; if your story is established, infamy will rest for ever upon the ain, and let me entreat you to answer scrupulously Did Lionel Tressilian ad hich you say that the prisoner charged him?”
”Once more I solemnly swear that what I have spoken is true; that Lionel Tressilian did in ed by Sir Oliver with theof hies
Can I make it any plainer, sirs?”
Lord Henry spread his hands ”After that, Killigrew, I do not think we can go further in this land, and there take his trial”
But there was one present--that officer named Youldon--whose wits, it seems, were of keener temper
”By your leave, my lord,” he now interposed, and he turned to question the witness ”What was the occasion on which Sir Oliver forced this admission from his brother?”
Truthfully she answered ”At his house in Algiers on the night he”
She checked suddenly, perceiving then the trap that had been set for her And the others perceived it also Sir John leapt into the breach which Youldon had so shrewdly made in her defences
”Continue, pray,” he bade her ”On the night he”
”On the night we arrived there,” she answered desperately, the colour now receding slowly from her face
”And that, of course,” said Sir John slowly, ly almost, ”was the first occasion on which you heard this explanation of Sir Oliver's conduct?”
”It was,” she faltered--perforce
”So that,” insisted Sir John, determined to leave her no loophole whatsoever, ”so that until that night you had naturally continued to believe Sir Oliver to be theher head in silence, realizing that the truth could not prevail here since she had haed into the light
”Answer me!” Sir John commanded
”There is no need to answer,” said Lord Henry slowly, in a voice of pain, his eyes lowered to the table ”There can, of course, be but one answer Mistress Rosamund has told us that he did not abduct her forcibly; that she ith hied that circumstance as a proof of her conviction of his innocence Yet now it becoland with him she still believed him to be her brother's slayer Yet she asks us to believe that he did not abduct her” He spread his hands again and pursed his lips in a sort of grieved contempt
”Let us
”Ah, wait!” she cried ”I swear that all that I have told you is true--all but the matter of the abduction I admit that, but I condoned it in viehat I have since learnt”
”She admits it!”hih the evil of others, I gladly own hi to s You must believe me, sirs But if you will not, I ask you is his action of yesterday to count for naught? Are you not to ree of my whereabouts?”
They stared at her in fresh surprise
”To what do you refer now, mistress? What action of his is responsible for this?”
”Do you need to ask? Are you so set on norance? Surely you know that it was he dispatched Lionel to inform you of my whereabouts?”