When her lips had touched the dirty
little book, greasy with the kisses of innumerable perjurers, the Serjeant
began to question her in a tone of odious familiarity.
"Now, my dear young lady, here is a gentleman's liberty, and perhaps his
life, hanging on the breath of those pretty lips; so I want you to answer
a few plain questions with as plain speech as you can command, remembering
that you are to tell us the truth, and the whole truth, and nothing but the
truth. Come, now, dear miss, when you left your father's house on the night
of July 4, in this present year, in Lord Fareham's company, did you go with
him of your own free will, and with a knowledge of his purpose?"
"I knew that he loved me."
A heart-breaking groan from Sir John Kirkland was hushed down by an usher
of the court.
"You knew that he loved you, and that he designed to carry you beyond
seas?"
"Yes."
"And you were willing to leave your father's custody and go with the
defendant as his paramour?"
There was a pause, and the white cheek crimsoned, and the heavy eyelids
fell over agonised eyes.
"I went willingly--because I loved him;" and then with a sudden burst of
passion, "I would have died for him, or lived for him.
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