"About quarter past four, getting into her Volkswagen." "You didn't see her come out of that wild garden?" "No, I didn't happen to. I think I'd gone indoors for a while." "You're quite certain she went into the wild garden alone? The children couldn't have gone with her, or perhaps ahead of her?" "No, they didn't. Shortly before 3:30 Doris Wayne--she's ten--started an argument with her younger brother Billy. Mrs. Wayne reproved them, told them to sit by the picnic table and restrain their voices. They did." Mrs. Jason glacially smiled. "The origin of the argument--" "Well, that might lead us too far afield. Just--" "If the Court please--" Cecil Warner cleared his throat with sudden but stately sonority--"I submit that, to appease the curiosity of all present including myself, the _casus belli_ between Doris and William Wayne, though doubtless not part of the _res gestae_, should be made known." Cecil was even standing, making a production of it, announcing with eyebrows and twinkle that all he wanted was to have a bit of ponderous fun and relieve the tension: what could be more innocent? Risky, but Mann wanted to play along. He said: "Mm, yes. The rules of evidence should not debar us from ascertaining the gravamen of this ancillary conflict." _How'm I doing, Cecil? Gravamen, ancillary, each five dollars, please._ Hunter looked uneasy, not prepared with any elephantine humor of his own. "Well, your Honor, Callista had been showing Doris Wayne how to make a squeak by blowing across a grass-blade held between the thumbs. The effect on neighboring eardrums is impressive. The argument I mentioned arose when Billy wished to perfect himself in the same peculiar art and was informed by his sister that he was not old enough." Mann let the courtroom rumble while Cecil Warner sat down poker-faced. Now the jury could never quite forget that this was a girl who could play with children; that the children must have liked her; that children are often "judges of character" and so--maybe-- Callista this morning was looking different. Since she first appeared Judge Mann's gaze had been repeatedly drawn to her as he tried to discover the nature of the change. No make-up, dressed the same, the white blouse more wilted. But her cheeks showed faint color; her mouth was not set in such a bitter line. Once or twice when Warner whispered to her she smiled, a flash of light almost shocking in its unexpected sweetness. And when her thin face was relaxed, perhaps the only word for it this morning was--peacefulness. With no change in the circumstances, with the troubled honest woman on the stand obviously about to do a little more toward destroying her from a sense of duty, what had Callista Blake to do with peacefulness? He noticed also that redheaded Edith Nolan had managed to get a seat one row nearer the arena, and her candid blue eyes seldom left the face of her friend.