“Did you go to that young haberdasher who testified here as he said?”
“Yes, sir.”
“And did he give you the name of any particular doctor?”
“Well — yes — but I wouldn’t care to say which one.”
“All right, you needn’t.
But did you send Miss Alden to any doctor?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Did she go alone or did you go with her?”
“I went with her — that is, to the door.”
“Why only to the door?”
“Well, we talked it over, and she thought just as I did, that it might be better that way.
I didn’t have any too much money at the time.
I thought he might be willing to help her for less if she went by herself than if we both went together.”
(“I’ll be damned if he isn’t stealing most of my thunder,” thought Mason to himself at this point.
“He’s forestalling most of the things I intended to riddle him with.”
And he sat up worried.
Burleigh and Redmond and Earl Newcomb — all now saw clearly what Jephson was attempting to do.)
“I see.
And it wasn’t by any chance because you were afraid that your uncle or Miss X might hear of it?”
“Oh, yes, I . . . that is, we both thought of that and talked of it.
She understood how things were with me down there.”
“But not about Miss X?”
“No, not about Miss X.”
“And why not?”
“Well, because I didn’t think I could very well tell her just then.
It would have made her feel too bad.
I wanted to wait until she was all right again.”
“And then tell her and leave her. Is that what you mean?”
“Well, yes, if I still couldn’t care for her any more — yes, sir.”
“But not if she was in trouble?” “Well, no, sir, not if she was in trouble.
But you see, at that time I was expecting to be able to get her out of that.”
“I see.
But didn’t her condition affect your attitude toward her — cause you to want to straighten the whole thing out by giving up this Miss X and marrying Miss Alden?”
“Well, no, sir — not then exactly — that is, not at that time.”
“How do you mean —‘not at that time’?”
“Well, I did come to feel that way later, as I told you — but not then — that was afterwards — after we started on our trip to the Adirondacks —”
“And why not then?”
“I’ve said why.
I was too crazy about Miss X to think of anything but her.”
“You couldn’t change even then?”
“No, sir.
I felt sorry, but I couldn’t.”
“I see.
But never mind that now.
I will come to that later.
Just now I want to have you explain to the jury, if you can, just what it was about this Miss X, as contrasted with Miss Alden, that made her seem so very much more desirable in your eyes.
Just what characteristics of manner or face or mind or position — or whatever it was that so enticed you?
Or do you know?”
This was a question which both Belknap and Jephson in various ways and for various reasons — psychic, legal, personal — had asked Clyde before, and with varying results.
At first he could not and would not discuss her at all, fearing that whatever he said would be seized upon and used in his trial and the newspapers along with her name.