morning it all came over again with increased disagreeableness.

"Erica always was the plucky one," said Tom to his mother as they
watched her enter the witness box. "She always did the confessing when
we got into scrapes. I only hope that brute of a Cringer won't put her
out of countenance."

He need not have feared, though in truth Erica was tried to the utmost.
To begin with, it was one of the very hottest of the dog-days, and the
court was crowded to suffocation. This was what the public considered
the most interesting day of the trial for it was the most personal one,
and the English have as great a taste for personalities as the Americans
though it is not so constantly gratified. Apparently Mr. Cringer, being
a shrewd man, had managed in the night watches to calculate Erica's one
vulnerable point. She was fatally clear-headed; most aggravatingly and
palpably truthful; most unfortunately fascinating; and, though naturally
quick-tempered, most annoyingly self-controlled. But she was evidently
delicate. If he could sufficiently harass and tire her, he might make
her say pretty much what he pleased.

This, at least, was the conclusion at which he had arrived. And if it
was indeed his duty to the defendant to exhaust both fair means and foul
in the endeavor to win him his case, then he certainly fulfilled his
duty. For six long hours, with only a brief interval for luncheon, Erica
was baited, badgered, tormented with questions which in themselves were
insults, assured that she had said what she had not said, tempted to say
what she did not mean, involved in fruitless discussions about places
and dates and, in fact, so thoroughly tortured, that most girls would
long before have succumbed. She did not succumb, but she grew whiter
and whiter save when some vile insinuation brought a momentary wave of
crimson across her face.

Tom listened breathlessly to the examination which went on in a constant
crescendo of bitterness.

"The plaintiff was in the habit of doing this?"

"Yes."

"Your suspicion was naturally excited, then?"

"Certainly not."

"Not excited?" incredulously.

"Not in the least."

"You are an inmate of the plaintiff's house, I believe?"

"I am."

"But this has not always been the case?"

"All my life with the exception of two years."

"Your reason for the two years' absence had a connection with the
plaintiff's mode of life, had it not?"

"Not in the sense you wish to imply. It had a con