But it was a contradiction which while noted by Mr.Moffat, failed to injure me with the jury, and much less with the spectators.

The impression had become so firmly fixed in the public mind and in that of certain officials as well, that my early hesitations and misstatements were owing to a brotherly anxiety to distract attention from Arthur whose clothing they believed me to have recognised in these articles I have mentioned--that I rather gained than lost by what, under other circumstances would have seriously damaged my testimony.

That I should prevaricate even to my own detriment, at a preliminary examination, only to tell the truth openly and like a man when in court and under the sanctity of an oath was, in the popular estimation, something to my credit; and Mr.Moffat, whose chief recommendation as counsel lay in his quick appreciation of the exigencies of the moment, did not press me too sharply on this point when he came to his cross-examination.
But in other respects he drove me hard.

An effort was made by him, first of all, to discredit me as a witness.

My lack of appreciation for Adelaide and my secret but absorbing love for Carmel were inexorably brought out: also the easy, happy-go-lucky tenor of my life, and my dogged persistence in any course I thought consistent with my happiness.
My character was well known in this town of my birth, and it would have been folly for me to attempt to gloss it over.