The Forsyte Saga, Volume 3(304)

‘I don’t know.’

‘Did you trouble to conceal your feelings?’

‘If you mean did I make love to her on the ship – I did not.’

‘When did you first make love to her?’

‘I told her my feelings just before we left the ship.’

‘Was there any real reason why you should have gone to her state-room to see those photographs?’

‘I suppose not.’

‘Did you look at any photographs at all?’

‘Certainly.’

‘What else did you do?’

‘I think we talked.’

‘Don’t you know? This was an occasion for you, wasn’t it? Or was it only one of several occasions of which we have not been told?’

‘It was the only time I was inside her state-room.’

‘In that case surely you remember?’

‘We just sat and talked.’

‘Beginning to remember, eh? Where did you sit?’

‘In the chair.’

‘And where did she sit?’

‘On her bed. It was a small cabin – there was no other chair.’

‘An outside cabin?’

‘Yes.’

‘No chance of being overlooked?’

‘No, but there was nothing to overlook.’

‘So you both say. I suppose it gave you something of a thrill, didn’t it?’

Dinny saw the Judge’s face poked forward.

‘I don’t want to interrupt you, Mr Brough, but the witness has made no secret of his feelings.’

‘Very well, my Lord. I will put it to him bluntly. I suggest, sir, that on that occasion there was misconduct between you?’

‘There was none.’

‘H’m! Tell the jury why it was that when Sir Gerald Corven came to London you did not go to him and frankly avow your relations with his wife.’

‘What relations?’

‘Come, sir! The fact, on your own showing, that you were seeing all you could of his wife; the fact that you were in love with her, and wanted her to go away with you.’

‘She did not want to go away with me. I would willingly have gone to her husband, but I had no right to without her permission.’

‘Did you ask for that permission?’

‘No.’

‘Why not?’

‘Because she had told me we could only meet as friends.’

‘I suggest she told you nothing of the sort?’

‘My Lord, that is asking me if I am a liar.’

‘Answer the question.’

‘I am not a liar.’

‘That is the answer, I think, Mr Brough.’

‘Tell me, sir; you heard the respondent’s evidence, did it strike you as entirely truthful?’

Dinny saw, and hoped that no one else saw, the quivering of his face.

‘Yes, so far as I could judge.’

‘It was perhaps not quite a fair question. But I may put it this way: If the respondent were to say that she had done, or not done, this or that, you would feel bound in honour to corroborate her statement, where you could, and to believe it where you could not?’

‘I am not sure that is quite fair, Mr Brough.’

‘My Lord, I submit that it is vital to my case to establish to the jury what the state of the co-respondent’s mind has been throughout this business.’

‘Well, I won’t stop the question, but there is a limit, you know, to these generalities.’

Dinny saw the first flicker of a smile on young Croom’s face.

‘My Lord, I don’t at all mind answering the question. I do not know what I should feel bound in honour to do, generally speaking.’

‘Well, let us come to the particular. Lady Corven has said that she could trust you not to make love to her. Would you say that was true?’

Dinny saw his face darken.

‘Not quite true. But she knew I did my best not to.’

‘But now and then you couldn’t help it?’

‘I don’t know what you mean by the expression “making love”; but now and then I know I showed my feelings.’

‘Now and then? Mr Croom, didn’t you always show your feelings?’

‘If you mean did I always show that I was in love with her – of course I did, you can’t hide a thing like that.’

‘That is a fair admission. I don’t want to catch you. I mean more than just showing by your face and eyes that you were in love. I mean downright physical expression.’

‘Then, no, except –’

‘Yes?’

‘Kissing her cheek three times altogether, and holding her hand sometimes.’

‘So much she has admitted, and it is all you are prepared to swear to?’

‘I will swear there was no more.’

‘Tell me, did you sleep at all during that night in the car, when her head was on your shoulder?’