THE JUDGE. Couldn't help it?     

       FALDER. I didn't seem able to.     

CONTENTS

         The JUDGE slightly shrugs his shoulders.       

       FROME. How did you come to know her?     

       FALDER. Through my married sister.     

       FROME. Did you know whether she was happy with her husband?     

       FALDER. It was trouble all the time.     

       FROME. You knew her husband?     

       FALDER. Only through her—he's a brute.     

       THE JUDGE. I can't allow indiscriminate abuse of a person not present.     

       FROME. [Bowing] If your lordship pleases. [To FALDER] You admit altering this cheque?     

       FALDER bows his head.     

       FROME. Carry your mind, please, to the morning of Friday, July the 7th, and tell the jury what happened.     

       FALDER. [Turning to the jury] I was having my breakfast when she came. Her dress was all torn, and she was gasping and couldn't seem to get her       breath at all; there were the marks of his fingers round her throat; her arm was bruised, and the blood had got into her eyes dreadfully. It frightened me, and then when she told me, I felt—I felt—well—it was too much for me! [Hardening suddenly] If you'd seen it, having the feelings for her that I had, you'd have felt the same, I know.     

       FROME. Yes?     

       FALDER. When she left me—because I had to go to the office—I was out of my senses for fear that he'd do it again, and thinking what I could do. I couldn't work—all the morning I was like 

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