"Yes, sordid as you like; but I don't mean the
case at all."
"Then what do you mean, Mr. Langholm?"
"Her after life," he whispered; "the psychology of that woman, and her
subsequent adventures! She disappeared into thin air immediately after
the trial. I suppose you knew that?"
"I did hear it."
Rachel moistened her lips with champagne.
"Well, I should take her from that moment," said Langholm. "I should
start her story there."
"And should you make her guilty or not guilty?"
"Ah!" said Langholm, as though that would require consideration;
unluckily, he paused to consider on the spot.
"Who are you talking about?" inquired Mr. Venables, who had caught
Rachel's last words.
"Mrs. Minchin," she told him steadily.
"Guilty!" cried Mr. Venables, with great energy. "Guilty, and I'd have
gone to see her hanged myself!"
And Mr. Venables beamed upon Rachel as though proud of the sentiment,
while the diamonds rose and fell upon her white neck, where he would
have had the rope.
"A greater scandal," he went on, both to Rachel and to the lady on his
other side (who interrupted Mr. Venables to express devout agreement),
"a greater scandal and miscarriage of justice I have never known.
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