Mystery fiction; Trials (Murder) -- Fiction; United States -- Fiction
The drawing came back to Warner from the hands of Peter Anson but
without another glance from him; for a moment his stubby hands were
eloquent, saying: "_This paper has nothing to do with me._"
"It's true, isn't it, Miss Nolan, that although you're naturally fond of
Callista and loyal to her, the fondness and loyalty are based on
understanding? I mean, you know your friend's faults and weaknesses too.
You have, maybe, something of an older sister's detachment?"
"Yes, I think it's fair to say that. Mr. Warner, if that drawing isn't
to be used further, as an exhibit or anything--may I have it?"
"Well ..." The moment was a long one, Cecil Warner turning to look at
Callista Blake with something more than inquiry, Edith and Callista
gazing at each other directly, unsmiling, yet the Judge wished the
moment might be prolonged for the sake of his own understanding. A kind
of brilliance and a hush; the courtroom no more present than the ocean
is present at some moment of wind and shining sand and sunlight: only
the three of them; the three of them, and himself somehow more than a
simple observer. Callista smiled: climax of a moment that could have
lasted no longer. Warner was saying quickly: "Of course, my dear--" and
giving the drawing to Edith, who put it away in her handbag and shut the
clasp with care. "Now would you, as an observant friend, say that
Callista is moodier than most people? Subject to depressions?"
Hunter bayed: "I suggest Miss Nolan's qualifications as a psychiatrist
have not exactly been established."
"My question refers to a simple observation anyone might make."
"Is that a formal objection, Mr. Hunter?"
"No, your Honor. But I hope the testimony isn't going to stray into
fields where only a psychiatrist would be competent to speak."
"Let your mind be at rest on that point, Mr. District Attorney. Is
Callista Blake subject to periods of depression, Miss Nolan?"
"Yes, decidedly." Judge Mann considered the possibility of exaggeration,
not falsehood exactly but close to it. Surely Callista Blake was not
what his brother Jack would call a depressive type, if that word was
still favored in the jargon. "However, Mr. Warner, I think Callista's
depressions are generally related to some external cause. Related to
things that happen to her." _Yes, Redhead, that helps--some._
"Were you at all acquainted with Mrs. James Doherty?"
"By sight, hardly more. I believe I met her three times in all, when I
was visiting Callista's family in Shanesville."
"Have you met Mr. James Doherty any more often than that?"
"I don't think so. Same occasions, and then one or two times since Mrs.
Doherty's death, in connection with this case."
"Callista never told you much about the Dohertys, either of them?"
"No, not much, until last July. Then she took me into her confidence
about the episode with Doherty, which had ended then, or so she hoped."
"She said that? That she hoped the affair was ended?"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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