The Clever Woman of the Family [174]
looking into the brown intelligent eyes, "I am sure you have been well taught. Can you tell me what is meant by taking an oath before a magistrate?" "Yes," said Rose, colour flushing into her face, "it is calling upon Almighty God to hear one speak the truth." She spoke so low that she could hardly be heard, and she looked full of startled fear and distress, turning her face up to Colonel Keith with a terrified exclamation, "Oh please, why am I here, what am I to say?" He was sorry for her; but her manifest want of preparation was all in favour of the cause, and he soothed her by saying, "Only answer just what you are asked as clearly as you can, and Mr. Grey will soon let you go. He knows you would try any way to speak the truth, but as he is going to examine you as a magistrate, he must ask you to take the oath first." Rose repeated the oath in her innocent tones, and perhaps their solemnity or the fatherly gentleness of Mr. Grey reassured her, for her voice trembled much less when she answered his next inquiry, who her parents were. "My mother is dead," she said; "my father is Mr Williams, he is away at Ekaterinburg." "Do you remember any time before he was at Ekaterinburg?" "Oh yes; when we lived at Kensington, and he had the patent glass works." "Now, turn round and say if there is any one here whom you know?" Rose, who had hitherto stood facing Mr. Grey, with her back to the rest of the room, obeyed, and at once exclaimed, "Aunt Alison," then suddenly recoiled, and grasped at the Colonel. "What is it, my dear?" "It is--it is Mr. Maddox," and with another gasp of fright, "and Maria! Oh, let me go." But Mr. Grey put his arm round her, and assured her that no one could harm her, Colonel Keith let his fingers be very hard pinched, and her aunt came nearer, all telling her that she had only to make her answers distinctly; and though still shrinking, she could reply to Mr. Grey's question whom she meant by Mr. Maddox. "The agent for the glass--my father's agent." "And who is Maria?" "She was my nurse." "When did you last see the person you call Mr. Maddox?" "Last time, I was sure of it, was when I was walking on the esplanade at Avoncester with Colonel Keith," said Rose, very anxious to turn aside and render her words inaudible. "I suppose you can hardly tell when that was?" "Yes, it was the day before you went away to Lord Keith's wedding," said Rose, looking to the Colonel. "Had you seen him before?" "Twice when I was out by myself, but it frightened me so that I never looked again." "Can you give me any guide to the time?" She was clear that it had been after Colonel Keith's first stay at Avonmouth, but that was all, and being asked if she had ever mentioned these meetings, "Only when Colonel Keith saw how frightened I was, and asked me." "Why were you frightened?" asked Mr. Grey, on a hint from the Colonel. "Because I could not quite leave off believing the dreadful things Mr. Maddox and Maria said they would do to me if I told." "Told what?" "About Mr. Maddox coming and walking with Maria when she was out with me," gasped Rose, trying to avert her head, and not comforted by hearing Mr. Grey repeat her words to those tormentors of her infancy. A little encouragement, however, brought out the story of the phosphoric letters, the lions, and the vision of Maddox growling in the dressing-room. The date of the apparition could hardly be hoped for, but fortunately Rose remembered that it was two days before her mamma's birthday, because she had felt it so bard to be eaten up before the fete, and this date tallied with that given by Maria of her admitting her treacherous admirer into the private rooms. "The young lady may be precocious, no doubt, sir," here said the accused, "but I hardly see why she has been brought here. You can attach no weight to the confused recollections of so young a child, of matters that took place so long ago." "The question will be what weight the jury will attach to them at the assizes," said Mr. Grey. "You will permit me to make one