er own vanity
instantly rebelled.

"I ought not to have said exactly what I did," she said, almost stifled
by her own excitement, and making great efforts not to play the mere
wilful child; "that I admit. But it has been clear to me from the
beginning that--that"--her words hurried, she took up a book and
restlessly lifted it and let it fall--"you have never looked at this
thing justly. You have looked at the crime as any one must who is a
landowner; you have never allowed for the provocation; you have not let
yourself feel pity--"

He made an exclamation.

"Do you know where I was before I went into the inquest?"

"No," she said defiantly, determined not to be impressed, feeling a
childish irritation at the interruption.

"I was with Mrs. Westall. Harden and I went in to see her. She is a
hard, silent woman. She is clearly not popular in the village, and no
one comes in to her. Her"--he hesitated--"her baby is expected before
long. She is in such a state of shock and excitement that Clarke thinks
it quite possible she may go out of her mind. I saw her sitting by the
fire, quite silent, not crying, but with a wild eye that means mischief.
We have sent in a nurse to help Mrs. Jellison watch her. She seems to
care nothing about her boy. Everything that that woman most desired in
life has been struck from her at a blow. Why? That a man who was in no
stress of poverty, who had friends and employment, should indulge
himself in acts which he knew to be against the law, and had promised
you and his wife to forego, and should at the same time satisfy a wild
beast's hatred against the man, who was simply defending his master's
property. Have _you_ no pity for Mrs. Westall or her child?"

He spoke as calmly as he could, making his appeal to reason and moral
sense; but, in reality, every word was charged with electric feeling.

"I _am_ sorry for her!" cried Marcella, passionately. "But, after all,
how can one feel for the oppressor, or those connected with him, as one
does for the victim?" He shook his head, protesting against the word,
but she rushed on. "You do know--for I told you yesterday--how under the
shelter of this _hateful_ game system Westall made Kurd's life a burden
to him when he was a young man--how he had begun to bully him again this
past year. We had the same sort of dispute the other day about that
murder in Ireland. You were shocked that I would not condemn the
Moonlighters who had shot their landlord f