The examiner bowed and returned to his seat.
"You"d better go home, Todhunter," said Jimmy, severely.
"No, James," retorted his stepson calmly. "I think I"ll stay here."
"But this is a private commission, sir!" roared Mr. Cooley angrily.
"Well, let"s make it public," retorted Tod quickly. Turning to Paula, he said: "Would you like me to stay here, Miss Marsh?"
"Oh--please--please!" she said imploringly.
"It"s impossible!" shouted the lawyer angrily. "I object."
"Nothing is impossible when a lady requests it," rejoined Tod determinedly. "Go on with the examination! I"m going to stay--don"t trouble, Cooley--I"ll find a chair."
He looked around and took a seat near the fireplace. Mr. Cooley, unable to control himself, moved towards him with threatening gesture. In another moment he would have attempted to eject him forcibly, but Jimmy restrained him:
"Better let him stay," he whispered.
"Very well," grumbled the lawyer, "but young man--perfect silence!"
"Go on now," grinned Tod, "go on--never mind me."
The examiner resumed the questioning:
"Miss Marsh--you have stated on several occasions that when you came in for your father"s estate you would give large sums of money to various charities?"
"Yes."
"Did you say you were going to"--he stopped and looked at a paper in his hand. Reading, he went on--"found an inst.i.tution for the development of the psychic self in animals?"
"No!" she replied, with an emphatic shake of her head.
Dr. Zacharie threw up his hands with a gesture meant to express utter disbelief in her denial.
"The money," went on Paula, "was to be expended for the prevention of animal torture in the name of science."
Mr. Cooley now took a hand in the cross-examination.
"Isn"t it a fact," he demanded, "that all these large bequests to societies for the psychic development of monkies or mice or old ladies, as the case may be, were made for the express purpose of preventing your Uncle James and his family from partic.i.p.ating in the enjoyment of the family estate?"
"Exactly," answered Paula calmly.
Mr. Cooley gave vent to a noisy chuckle. Turning to Dr. McMutrie, he said:
"Ah! That establishes irresponsibility."
"Quite so--quite so," chimed in Professor Bodley, trying to look alert by peering over his spectacles.
But the lawyer"s interference only earned for him a well-merited rebuke from the head of the commission. Frigidly the examiner said:
"I prefer to draw my own conclusions, Mr. Cooley." Turning again to Paula, he went on: "You left your church a year ago--why?"
"Because Mr. James Marsh is one of its chief pillars," she replied spiritedly. "He prays the loudest and receives the most homage----"
Tod laughed outright.
"That"s rather rough on you, Jimmy!"
Mr. Cooley glared at him.
"Silence, sir!" he thundered.
"How dare you!" exclaimed Jimmy, in a fierce undertone.
The lawyer tried to impress on the physicians the importance of the girl"s replies.
"The illusion of imaginary wrongs," he said, "must have taken a terrible hold on her when it compels her to give up her religion."
"I did not give up my religion," protested Paula quickly. "I gave up a church that countenanced hypocrisy."
"You said," interrupted the examiner, "that the law of compensation will punish him. What is the law of compensation?"
"It"s the pit a man digs for others--and falls into himself."
"And if the law of compensation fails," interposed Mr. Cooley, "you"ll undertake Uncle James" punishment yourself--eh?"
"Mr. Cooley--I must insist!" cried the examiner angrily.
Paula was rapidly becoming more and more hysterical. With growing exaltation she cried:
"Yes, I will--of that you may rest a.s.sured!"
Mr. Cooley, with an expression of triumph on his coa.r.s.e face, looked toward the examiner.
"The law would construe that answer as a threat, sir."
Professor Bodley leaned forward to ask a question:
"How would you punish him, young lady?"
The girl shook her head.
"I don"t know--it will come to me."
"She will hear a voice within, eh?" laughed Dr. Zacharie.
"Ah--so you hear voices?" demanded the examiner.