Now, it was on Friday afternoon, if you
recollect, that you gave evidence yourself in your own defence. When you
left the witness-box, Mrs. Minchin, and even before you left it, I knew
that you were saved!"
Rachel remembered the Swiss maid's remark about the loss of her clothes
and the number of persons who had fared so much worse and lost their
lives. But Steel's last words dismissed every thought but that of their
own import. And in an instant she was trembling upright in the
easy-chair.
"You believed me!" she whispered. "You believed me at the time!"
And for nothing had he earned such gratitude yet; her moist eyes saw the
old-fashioned courtesy of his bow in answer, but not the subtlety of the
smile that bore it company in the depths of the dark eyes: it was a
smile that did not extend to the short, tight mouth.
"What is more to the point, my dear lady," he went on in words, "the
jury believed you, and I saw that they did. You made a tremendous
impression upon them. The lawyer against you was too humane to try very
hard to remove it, and the judge too just--though your own man did his
best. But I saw at once that it would never be removed.
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