Swainson."

"And--dear me! what a sweet bonnet that is you have on!"

Afy, whose egregious vanity was her besetting sin--who possessed enough
of it for any ten pretty women going--cast a glance out of the corners
of her eyes at the admired bonnet, and became Mr. Ball's entirely.

"And how long was it, after your first meeting with him, before you
discovered his real name?"

"Not for a long time--several months."

"Subsequent to the murder, I presume?"

"Oh, yes!"

Mr. Ball's eyes gave a twinkle, and the unconscious Afy surreptitiously
smoothed, with one finger, the glossy parting of her hair.

"Besides Captain Thorn, what gentlemen were in the wood the night of the
murder?"

"Richard Hare was there. Otway Bethel and Locksley also. Those were all
I saw until the crowd came."

"Were Locksley and Mr. Otway Bethel martyrs to your charms, as the other
two were?"

"No, indeed!" was the witness's answer, with an indignant toss of the
head. "A couple of poaching fellows like them! They had better have
tried it on!"

"Which of the two, Hare or Thorn, was inside the cottage with you that
evening?"

Afy came out of her vanity and hesitated. She was beginning to wonder
where the questions would get to.

"You are upon your oath, witness!" thundered Mr. Justice Hare. "If it
was my--if it was Richard Hare who was with you, say so. But there must
be no equivocation here."

Afy was startled. "It was Thorn," she answered to Mr. Ball.

"And where was Richard Hare?"

"I don't know. He came down, but I sent him away; I would not admit him.
I dare say he lingered in the wood."

"Did he leave a gun with you?"

"Yes. It was one he had promised to lend my father. I put it down just
inside the door. He told me it was loaded."

"How long after this was it, that your father interrupted you?"

"He didn't interrupt us at all," returned Afy. "I never saw my father
until I saw him dead."

"Were you not in the cottage all the time?"

"No; we went out for a stroll at the back. Captain Thorn wished me
good-bye there, and I stayed out."

"Did you hear the gun go off?"

"I heard a shot as I was sitting on the stump of a tree, and was
thinking; but I attached no importance to it, never supposing it was in
the cottage."

"What was it that Captain Thorn had to get from the cottage after he
quitted you? What had he left there?"

Now, this was a random shaft. Lawyer Ball, a keen man, who had well
weighed all points in the