"Gentlemen," said she, "there was no need of all this talk. I intended to seek an interview with Mrs. Clemmens and try what the effect would be of confiding to her my interest in her nephew." The dignified simplicity with which she spoke, and the air of quiet candor that for that one moment surrounded her, gave to this voluntary explanation an unexpected force that carried it quite home to the hearts of the jury. Even Mr. Orcutt could not preserve the frown with which he had confronted her at the first movement of her lips, but turned toward the prisoner with a look almost congratulatory in its character. But Mr. Byrd, who for reasons of his own kept his eyes upon that prisoner, observed that it met with no other return than that shadow of a bitter smile which now and then visited his otherwise unmoved countenance. Mr. Ferris, who, in his friendship for the witness, was secretly rejoiced in an explanation which separated her from the crime of her lover, bowed in acknowledgment of the answer she had been pleased to give him in face of the ruling of the Court, and calmly proceeded: "And what reply did the prisoner make you when you uttered this remark in reference to the change that a single day sometimes makes in one's affairs?" "Something in the way of assent." "Cannot you give us his words?" "No, sir." "Well, then, can you tell us whether or not he looked thoughtful when you said this?" "He may have done so, sir." "Did it strike you at the time that he reflected on what you said?" "I cannot say how it struck me at the time." "Did he look at you a few minutes before speaking, or in any way conduct himself as if he had been set thinking?" "He did not speak for a few minutes." "And looked at you?" "Yes, sir." The District Attorney paused a moment as if to let the results of his examination sink into the minds of the jury; then he went on: "Miss Dare, you say you returned the ring to the prisoner?" "Yes, sir." "You say positively the ring passed from you to him; that you saw it in his hand after it had left yours?" "No, sir. The ring passed from me to him, but I did not see it in his hand, because I did not return it to him that way. I dropped it into his pocket." At this acknowledgment, which made both the prisoner and his counsel look up, Mr. Byrd felt himself nudged by Hickory. "Did you hear that?" he whispered. "Yes," returned the other. "And do you believe it?" "Miss Dare is on oath," was the reply. "Pooh!" was Hickory's whispered exclamation. The District Attorney alone showed no surprise. "You dropped it into his pocket?" he resumed. "How came you to do that?" "I was weary of the strife which had followed my refusal to accept this token. He would not take it from me himself, so I restored it to him in the way I have said." "Miss Dare, will you tell us what pocket this was?"