I was foolish and indiscreet."
"And that was all?"
"Yes."
"You are innocent of the charge, then?"
"Yes."
"Do you ask the jury to believe you?"
"I ask them to--yes! Yes! I ask them to."
"Do you expect them to?"
"Oh, they ought to."
"If you had been guilty of misconduct would you admit it?"
"Yes."
"Do you expect them to believe that?"
"If they knew me they would."
"Well, we haven't all the privilege of knowing you as well as the
defendant does. You may step down, Mrs. Cheever, thank you."
McNiven rose. "One moment, Mrs. Cheever. You testified on direct
examination that the defendant left you immediately after the waiter
did?"
"Yes."
"And that he did not return till the next morning, just before the
waiter returned."
"Yes."
"That is all, Mrs. Cheever."
McNiven would have done better to leave things alone. The sturdy
last answer of Charity and the unsportsmanlike sneer of Kedzie's
lawyer had inclined the jury her way. McNiven's explanation awoke
again the skeptic spirit.
Charity descended from her pillory with a feeling that she had said
none of the things she had planned to say. The eloquence of her
thoughts had seemed incompatible somehow with the witness-stand.
At a time when she needed to say so much she had said so little
and all of it wrong.
CHAPTER XIII
Jim Dyckman's heart was so wrung with pity for Charity when she
stepped down and sought her place in a haze of despair that he
resolved to make a fight for her himself.
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