in the dangerous disproportion that
enforced continence brings to certain natures, loading the brain with
violence till the storm bursts and there leap out the lurid, dark
insanities of crime. Brooding, while in the air flies chased each other,
insects crawled together in the grass, and the first principle of nature
worked everywhere its sane fulfilment. They might talk and take evidence
as they would, be shrewd and sharp with all the petty sharpness of the
Law; but the secret springs would still lie undisclosed, too natural
and true to bear the light of day. The probings and eloquence of justice
would never paint the picture of that moment of maniacal relief, when,
with jaw hanging loose, eyes bulging in exultation of revenge, he had
struck those matches with his hairy hands and let them flare in the
straw, till the little red flames ran and licked, rustled and licked,
and there was nothing to do but watch them lick and burn. Nor of that
sudden wildness of dumb fear that rushed into the heart of the crouching
creature, changing the madness of his face to palsy. Nor of the recoil
from the burning stack; those moments empty with terror. Nor of how
terror, through habit of inarticulate, emotionless existence, gave place
again to brute stolidity. And so, heavily back across the dewy fields,
under the larks' songs, the cooings of pigeons, the hum of wings,
and all the unconscious rhythm of ageless Nature. No! The probings of
Justice could never reach the whole truth. And even Justice quailed at
its own probings when the mother-child was passed up from Tod's side
into the witness-box and the big laborer was seen to look at her and
she at him. She seemed to have grown taller; her pensive little face and
beautifully fluffed-out corn-brown hair had an eerie beauty, perched up
there in the arid witness-box, as of some small figure from the brush of
Botticelli.

"Your name, my dear?"

"Biddy Tryst."

"How old?"

"Ten next month, please."

"Do you remember going to live at Mr. Freeland's cottage?"

"Yes, sir."

"And do you remember the first night?"

"Yes, sir."

"Where did you sleep, Biddy?"

"Please, sir, we slept in a big room with a screen. Billy and Susie and
me; and father behind the screen."

"And where was the room?"

"Down-stairs, sir."

"Now, Biddy, what time did you wake up the first morning?"

"When Father got up."

"Was that early or late?"

"Very early."

"Would you know the time?"

"No, si