“I didn’t look at the clock.” “About how long?” “I can’t say.” “Do you think it was half an hour?” “It might be so.” “Or less.” “I really can’t tell.” “Then she was absent for half an hour at the outside, possibly.” “I suppose so.” “You may go now. I shall want you again. I proceed to summon Jane Redmore.” This poor woman was in such a nervous condition that she would have fainted, had she not been provided with a chair. Nothing but what was of absolute importance could be drawn from her; which was that Kitty had not accompanied her beyond the gate from the Coombe premises, a distance of hardly three hundred yards. “This,” said the solicitor, “is what I require. I will not trouble this feeble and timorous creature any longer. We have ascertained that the defendant, Kate Quarm, went out with Mrs. Redmore, under the pretext that she was going to accompany her home.” “I do not think this point was established,” said the chairman. “I beg your worship’s pardon. You are right. The next witness I shall call will establish the pretext without a doubt. I summon Pasco Pepperill!” “Stay a moment’what is this noise, this disturbance in the court?” called the chairman. “It is not possible for me or my brother magistrates to hear what is said. Unless the disturbance be allayed instantly, I shall give orders for the court to be cleared.” The requisite stillness ensued. “Now then, Mr. Pepperill, stand forward, take the book, and such answers,” etc. Again there ensued a movement among the crowd outside the rails’exclamations, mutterings, and heaving and tossing, as though the mass of mankind there densely packed was boiling up from below. “I insist on order in the court!” called the chairman. Then Pasco, having kissed the Bible, turned his face to the Bench. He was elate, had spread his breast, and tossed back his head, a self-complacent smirk was on his countenance. “I have felt it my duty,” he said, “to speak’to clear my own self, and to cut short the career of crime of the girl I have regarded as my niece.” Again the agitation among the public; and now through the mob came a man, elbowing his way, till he had forced himself to the front, and stood face to face with Pasco Pepperill. Pasco, disturbed in his pompous address, turned and saw before him’Jason Quarm! He put his hand to his head with a gasp, staggered back, and fell senseless to the ground. CHAPTER LIII JASON’S STORY The court was full of commotion. Pasco Pepperill had fallen, as though struck down by a hammer, and was insensible. He was carried out with difficulty, and with the crowd rushing about him and his bearers, unable to realise what had taken place, anxious to see if he were dead. He was not dead: a doctor was hastily summoned to the house into which he was taken, and he pronounced the case to be one of apoplexy brought on by sudden and violent emotion.