So they were to find her guilty of wilful murder, or not guilty at all! Every eye sped involuntarily to the slim black figure in the dock; and, under the gaze of all, the figure made the least little bow--a movement so slight and so spontaneous as to suggest unconsciousness, but all the more eloquent on that account.
Yet to many in court, more especially to the theatrical folk behind the man with the white hair, the gesture was but one more subtle touch in an exhibition of consummate art and nerve.
"If they do acquit her," whispered one of these wiseacres to another, "she will make her fortune on the stage!" Meanwhile the judge was dealing at the last with the prisoner's evidence in her own behalf, and that mercifully enough, though with less reticence than had characterized the earlier portions of his address.

He did not think it possible or even desirable to forget that this was the evidence of a woman upon trial for her life.

It must not be discredited on that account.

But it was for the jury to bear in mind that the story was one which admitted of no corroboration, save in unimportant details.
More than that he would not say.

It was for them to judge of that story as they had heard it for themselves, on its own merits, but also in relation to the other evidence.