Dick had no scruples of shame nor honour, and he would have no objections to telling lies, even on oath.

To Dick himself the psychology of the matter was interesting. He was telling the absolute truth, which was unusual, and it was doing more good than any carefully-shaped lies could have done. He had turned Jennifer into the persecuted and blameless wife, and himself and Ducane into the sinners, and the results of this arrangement would show very soon. But, because the postulated reason for Jennifer's alleged destruction of Ducane lay in her relations with Dick, he was kept in the witness-box for the remainder of the afternoon; and how much he had won he did not know until Robison should take his place there, and how much harm he had done himself with her he did not know either. But no cross-examining could extract from him more than he wished to say, and he gave place to Robison at last in the knowledge that Jennifer's cause was safe unless Robison chose to damn it. But Robison chose to say nothing. Called to a higher tribunal he was indifferent to the threats of an earthly one. He would not tell the truth, but he would not lie either, and Dick saw him go with something nearer gratitude to an unknown God than he had thought possible.

The long days in the hot, close court-room made Jennifer's little pale face smaller and paler than ever. But her courage had not flagged, and she had not misunderstood Dick's evidence. Much that he had said seemed painful and unnecessary to her; but she did not doubt his wisdom in saying it, even when she herself stood to be questioned on what he had said. There was nothing to deny there, for Dick had known better than to lie with her frank truth to follow him. But his disclosures had turned the tide of sympathy so powerfully in her favour that it could not be stopped now. Of Emmett's trumped-up charge there was practically nothing left. Jennifer had been shown to have thwarted at all points the man with whom she was supposed to be in love, and not the severest examination could make her story differ in the essentials from Dick's. She gave her answers clearly and directly; but she refused to say more of Ducane but that he was, to the best of her knowledge, alive and well.