liar faces, including Mary's little white one,--she had come up from
Cornwall after all, bless her!--I suddenly felt myself as weak as a cat.
I was allowed a seat in the dock, and I leaned back in it with what was
afterwards described by the reporters as "an apathetic air," though I
was really trying my hardest to avoid making an ass of myself by
fainting outright. That effort occupied all the energy I had, and I only
heard scraps of the evidence, which seemed, to my dulled brain, to
refer to some one else and not to me at all.

At last there came a confused noise, shouting and clapping, and above it
a stentorian voice.

"Silence! Silence in the court!"

Some one grasped my right arm--just where the bandage was, though he
didn't know that--and hurt me so badly that I started up involuntarily,
to find Sir George and Southbourne just in front of the dock holding out
their hands to me, and I heard a voice somewhere near.

"Come along, sir, this way; you can follow to the ante-room, gentlemen;
can't have a demonstration in Court."

I felt myself guided along by the grip on my arm that was like a red-hot
vice; there were people pressing about me, all talking at once, and
shaking hands with me.

I heard Southbourne say, sharper and quicker than I'd ever heard him
speak before:

"Here, look out! Stand back, some of you!"

The next I knew I was lying on a leather sofa with my head resting on
something soft. My collar and tie lay on the floor beside me, and my
face was wet, and something warm splashed down on it, just as I began to
try and recollect what had happened. Then I found that I was resting on
Mary's shoulder, and she was crying softly; it was one of her tears that
was trickling down my nose at this instant. She wiped it off with her
damp little handkerchief.

"You poor boy; you gave us a real fright this time," she exclaimed,
smiling through her tears,--a wan little ghost of a smile. "But we'll
soon have you all right again when we get you home."

"I'm all right now, dear; I'm sorry I've upset you so," I said, and Jim
bustled forward with some brandy in a flask, and helped me sit up.

I saw then that Sir George and Southbourne were still in the room; the
lawyer was sitting on a table close by, watching me through his
gold-rimmed pince-nez, and Southbourne was standing with his back to us,
staring out of the window.

"What's happened, anyhow?" I asked, and Sir George got off the table and
came up to me.