It had a great effect upon us; I have never forgotten it." "Can you relate this tale to us in a few words ?" "I will try.

It was very simple; it merely told how a young girl marred her beauty to escape the attentions of the great king, and what respect he always showed her after that, even calling her sister." Was the thrill in her voice or in my own heart, or in the story--emphasised as it was by her undeniable attempt upon her own beauty?
As that last word fell so softly, yet with such tender suggestion, a sensation of sympathy passed between us for the first time; and I knew, from the purity of her look and the fearlessness of this covert appeal to one she could not address openly, that the doubts I had cherished of her up to this very moment were an outrage and that were it possible or seemly, I should be bowed down in the dust at her feet--in reality, as I was in spirit.
Others may have shared my feeling; for the glances which flew from her face to mine were laden with an appreciation of the situation, which for the moment drove the prisoner from the minds of all, and centred attention on this tragedy of souls, bared in so cruel a way to the curiosity of the crowd.

I could not bear it.

The triumph of my heart battled with the shame of my fault, and I might have been tempted into some act of manifest imprudence, if Mr.Fox had not cut my misery short by recalling attention to the witness, with a question of the most vital importance.
"While you were holding your sister's hands in what you supposed to be her final moments, did you observe whether or not she still wore on her finger the curious ring given her by Mr.Ranelagh, and known as her engagement ring ?" "Yes--I not only saw it, but felt it.

It was the only one she wore on her left hand." The district attorney paused.