I could not catch the eye of Ella cowering low in her seat, so could not judge what tender chords had been struck in her sensitive breast by these two assertions so dramatically offset against each other--the one, his antagonism to the dead; the other, his freedom from the crime in which that antagonism was supposed to have culminated.
Mr.Moffat, satisfied so far, put his next question with equal directness: "Mr.Cumberland, you have mentioned seeing your sister in her coffin.
When was this ?" "At the close of her funeral, just before she was carried out." "Was that the first and only time you had seen her so placed ?" "It was." "Had you seen the casket itself prior to this moment of which you speak ?" "I had not." "Had you been near it?
Had you handled it in any way ?" "No, sir." "Mr.Cumberland, you have heard mention made of a ring worn by your sister in life, but missing from her finger after death ?" "I have." "You remember this ring ?" "I do." "Is this it ?" "It is, so far as I can judge at this distance." "Hand the ring to the witness," ordered the judge.
The ring was so handed.
He glanced at it, and said bitterly: "I recognise it.

It was her engagement ring." "Was this ring on her finger that night at the dinner-table ?" "I cannot say, positively, but I believe so.

I should have noticed its absence." "Why, may I ask ?" For the first time the prisoner flushed and the look he darted at his counsel had the sting of a reproach in it.

Yet he answered: "It was the token of an engagement I didn't believe in or like.

I should have hailed any proof that this engagement was off." Mr.Moffat smiled enigmatically.
"Mr.Cumberland, if you are not sure of having seen this ring then, when did you see it and where ?" A rustle from end to end of that crowded court-room.