still distinct in your memory, or had it
become blurred and vague?"

Lady Beltham hesitated, then answered confidently.

"I am sure I should not have recognised him; and some proof of this is,
that just before his arrest was effected I was conversing with the
prisoner for several minutes, without having the faintest idea that the
poor man with whom I imagined I had to do was no other than the man Gurn
for whom the police were looking."

The President nodded, and Maitre Barberoux leaned forward and spoke
eagerly to his client in the dock. But the President continued
immediately.

"You must forgive me, madame, for putting a question that may seem
rather brutal, and also for reminding you of your oath to tell us the
entire truth. Did you love your husband?"

Lady Beltham quivered and was silent for a moment, as though
endeavouring to frame a right answer.

"Lord Beltham was much older than myself----," she began, and then,
perceiving the meaning implicit in her words, she added: "I had the very
highest esteem for him, and a very real affection."

A cynical smile curled the lip of the President, and he glanced at the
jury as though asking them to pay still closer attention.

"Do you know why I put that question to you?" he asked, and as Lady
Beltham confessed her ignorance he went on: "It has been suggested,
madame, by a rumour which is very generally current in the newspapers
and among people generally, that the prisoner may possibly have been
greatly enamoured of you: that perhaps--well, is there any truth in
this?"

As he spoke the President bent forward, and his eyes seemed to pierce
right through Lady Beltham.

"It is a wicked calumny," she protested, turning very pale.

Throughout the proceedings Gurn had been sitting in an attitude of
absolute indifference, almost of scorn; but now he rose to his feet and
uttered a defiant protest.

"Sir," he said to the President of the Court, "I desire to say publicly
here that I have the most profound and unalterable respect for Lady
Beltham. Anyone who has given currency to the malignant rumour you refer
to, is a liar. I have confessed that I killed Lord Beltham, and I do not
retract that confession, but I never made any attempt upon his honour,
and no word, nor look, nor deed has ever passed between Lady Beltham and
myself, that might not have passed before Lord Beltham's own eyes."

The President looked sharply at the prisoner.

"Then tell me what your motive