Part 10 (1/2)
”Well, my lord, you know the world--so do the gentlemen of the jury--”
”And of the Jewry!” screamed his lords.h.i.+p, amid laughter from the merry wigs.
As Frankl stepped down, a name was called at which Hogarth went cold as a ghost: ”Rebekah Frankl”.
And in she stepped splendent, to stand like a Nubian woman, with that retreat of the hips, her ears torn with their load of gold, her throat and breast ablaze, she bringing into that English court the gaudy heat of the Orient, Baal and Astarte, orgies of Hindoo women in temples of Parvati, the pallid pa.s.sion of Bacchantes. Though not tall, she was lofty, and her ebon eyes had that very royalty of the stare of the bent form in the dock, whose heart throbbed quick like paddle-wheels that thrash the sea, she his wild divinity, wild wife of his wild youth....
At her shocking beauty the Court stood hushed.
She suggested the East: but in her speech was the energy of the West--sharp--a ba.s.s almost like her father's.
”You recognize the prisoner?”
”Yes”. She smiled.
”You were present on the day of the 11th November when the prisoner entered your father's house, and attempted to strike him?”
”Did strike him”.
”He did?”
”Yes”.
”Did he seem in a pa.s.sion?”
”Seemed severe”.
”Severe! But was he not highly excited?”
”He did not seem so. Frowned and flogged”.
”By whom was he ejected?”
”Went of his own accord”.
”But--try to remember. What made him go?”
”He suddenly saw _me_, and fled”.
Laughter droned through the court, in which she navely joined, while Hogarth's eyes and hers met one instant, blazed outrageously, and dropped....
That was all. Counsel bowed.
The day grew toward evening, and still the stuffy Court sat.
But Margaret Hogarth did not come; a defending counsel finished examination, counsel on the other side again addressed the Court, and again defending counsel. The judge then held the scales, the jury trooped away, the crowd buzzed.