"My poor girl!" said Gell. "If she has anything to say--to confess--it won't hurt so much to say it to somebody else. But of course she hasn't--she can't have." Stowell felt as if he had been suddenly deprived of the power of speech. Yes, Bessie would confess everything to Fenella. Not merely the birth of her child but also the name of her fellow-sinner--Fenella's desire to punish the guilty man would drag that out of her. Perhaps the confession was going on at that very moment. What a shock for Fenella too! All her high-built faith in him wrecked and broken! "Well, let us hope...." "Yes, that is all we can do." And then the two men parted, Gell returning to his pacing among the tombs of the dead kings and Stowell going out by the Deemster's door. A few of the spectators at the trial were waiting to see the Deemster off, but he scarcely saw their salutations and did not respond to them. CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE THE TWO WOMEN--THE TWO MEN On being taken back to her cell Bessie had burst into a fit of hysteria. "The brutes! They're only trying to catch me out that they may kill me. Why don't they do it then? Why don't they finish me? This waiting is the worst." Her face was blue with rage, her voice was coarse and husky, her mouth was full of ugly and vulgar words--all the traces of her common upbringing coming uppermost. At length, out of breath and exhausted, she broke into sobs. This quietened her and after a while she asked what had become of her mother. Fenella, who was alone with her (the woman warder having gone home ill), answered that some good women had carried her mother away and were going to take care of her. "And where is...." "Mr. Gell? Upstairs. He sent me down to speak to you." "I won't speak to anyone. They're all alike. They're only torturing me." Fenella reproved the girl tenderly. Could she not see that the Deemster himself was trying to help her? He had adjourned the Court to give her another chance, and if she could only explain away the evidence of the scarf.... "I won't explain anything. Why can't you leave me be?" "You heard what the Deemster said, Bessie? Tell the truth; the whole truth; it will be best for you; best for everybody." After that Bessie became calmer, and then Fenella (little knowing what she was doing for herself) pleaded with the girl to confess. "I think I understand," she said. "Sometimes a girl loves a man so much that she cannot deny him anything. Thousands and thousands of women have been like that. Not the worst women either. But the dark hour comes when the man does not marry her--perhaps cannot--and then she tries to cover up everything. And that's your case, isn't it?" "Don't ask me. I can't tell you," cried Bessie. Fenella tried again, still more tenderly.