"Well, Callista, your mood, your state of mind at that time, is certainly relevant in the ordinary sense. Legally, the question of relevance gets difficult when we're dealing with subjective matters. If I correctly understand the rulings during previous testimony, the Court is taking a generous and realistic attitude on this question. The nature of the case demands it, since, as I said in my opening words, we are not contesting most of the circumstantial evidence. Subject to correction by the Court, Callista, I'll leave it to you whether you think that a mention of what happened the night before would help the jury understand your situation. If you feel it would, go ahead and tell it, and we can check you if it seems to be going too far afield." "I think it might help to explain things. But I'll leave out the details--they don't matter." _By the way, Mrs. Chalmers, I'm your daughter--remember? They tell me I'm on trial for murder._ "It had to do with my relation to my mother, Mr. Warner. There had been some--tensions between us for quite a while, and that Saturday evening--it was the 15th, wasn't it?--yes--we sort of cleared it up. In a way." _Mrs. Chalmers, Mrs. Herbert Chalmers, I am about to smile at you, toward you anyway. Will it make any difference?_ "You remember, sir--Miss Welsh testified about my going out to Shanesville that Saturday evening, and how bad-mannered I was--and I don't doubt I was too, I can be pretty stupid--call it a one-track mind. Though it's a fact I just didn't know Ann Doherty was there on the porch, until Miss Welsh testified to it. She must have been back in the shadows, I suppose, and I was thinking so hard about what I wanted to talk over with my mother that I didn't hear her speak." Callista felt her lips curve. It was surely a smile; she meant it for a smile. "I guess I was in a fog." Yes, fog--as inexorably as deepening fog, the realization came over Callista that Mrs. Victoria Johnson Blake Chalmers was quite simply not listening. Present in the courtroom, knowing at least as well as most of the other spectators the general story of what was going on down here in the arena; but not listening. Mrs. Chalmers was maintaining a Face; a very necessary thing to do. She would have been perfectly willing to smile back, Callista guessed, if she could have divided her attention, listened just enough to understand that it might be appropriate, right now, for the Face to smile. "So I went indoors to--see my mother, and we--talked." Fog--words pushed into fog move sluggishly, as if through pain. "Miss Welsh also testified to overhearing a few things. Was that testimony accurate, Callista?"