256 THE HAUGHTYSHIRE HUNT. 



" Well, you see, I don't quite know ; but I think so. If 

 Luty " 



"Answer the question, sir, if you please. Yes or No." 



"But I can't, you know; perhaps we shan't be able to 

 agree about the " 



" Are you engaged to be married ? " 



" Oh, yes. Why didn't you — oh, beg pardon ; forgot I 

 mustn't ask questions." 



Mr. Silky, despite all his persuasion, varied by bullying 

 here and there, failed to extort anything in the shape of 

 important admissions from Mr. Binkie, for the simple reason 

 that there was really nothing to admit, he never having at 

 any time contemplated making Miss Turnover his wife. In 

 concluding his cross-examination, Mr. Silky asked— 



" Then you are prepared to swear that you never made my 

 client an offer of marriage — is that what you say ? " 



" Yes. I never even thought of it." 



" And yet, sir, you write her this letter, in which occur 

 these words ! " and the learned Counsel again quoted the last 

 paragraph of Binkie's letter — " You say that you may marr}^ 

 her some day, who knows, etc. Now, in the face of that, do 

 you still say marriage was never contemplated by you? " 



" Yes." 



" Then how do you explain those words, sir ? Why did 

 you ever use them ? " 



"Oh, because I was in such a beastly funk, you know, 

 that's why. I thought it would stop her going to the lawyer's, 

 you know, if I said that," blurted out Binkie. 



" So that when you wrote those words you wrote them with 

 the deliberate intention of deceiving this young woman? " 



