The counsel for the prosecution broke in.

“I submit that these questions are irrelevant, my lord,” he said.

“I shall subsequently show, my lord, that they are not.”

“The witness must answer the question,” said the judge.  “I see that there is a possible relevancy.”

The question was answered.

“Thank you, that is all,” said the counsel for the defence, and Mr. Taynton left the witness box.

It was then, for the first time since the trial began, that Morris looked at this witness.  All through he had been perfectly calm and collected, a circumstance which the spectators put down to the callousness with which they kindly credited him, and now for the first time, as Mr. Taynton’s eyes and his met, an emotion crossed the prisoner’s face.  He looked sorry.

CHAPTER XI

For the rest of the morning the examination of witnesses for the prosecution went on, for there were a very large number of them, but when the court rose for lunch, the counsel for the prosecution intimated that this was his last.  But again, hardly any but those engaged officially, the judge, the counsel, the prisoner, the warder, left the court.  Mr. Taynton, however, went home, for he had his seat on the bench, and he could escape for an hour from this very hot and oppressive atmosphere.  But he did not go to his Lewes office, or to any hotel to get his lunch.  He went to the station, where after waiting some quarter of an hour, he took the train to Brighton.  The train ran through Falmer and from his window he could see where the Park palings made an angle close to the road; it was from there that the path over the Downs, where he had so often walked, passed to Brighton.

Again the judge took his seat, still carrying the little parcel wrapped up in tissue paper.

There was no need for the usher to call silence, for the silence was granted without being asked for.

The counsel for the defence called the first witness; he also unwrapped a flat parcel which he had brought into court with him, and handed it to the witness.

“That was supplied by your firm?”

“Yes sir.”

“Who ordered it?”

“Mr. Assheton.”

“Mr. Morris Assheton, that is.  Did he order it from you, you yourself?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Did he give any specific instructions about it?”

“Yes, sir.”

“What were they?”

“That the blotting book which Mrs. Assheton had already ordered was to be countermanded, and that this was to be sent in its stead on June 24th.”

“You mean not after June 24th?”

“No, sir; the instructions were that it was not to be sent before June 24th.”

“Why was that?”

“I could not say, sir.  Those were the instructions.”

“And it was sent on June 24th.”

“Yes, sir.  It was entered in our book.”