On being taken back to her cell Bessie had burst into a fit of
hysteria.
"The brutes! They're only trying to catch me out that they may kill
me. Why don't they do it then? Why don't they finish me? This
waiting is the worst."
Her face was blue with rage, her voice was coarse and husky, her
mouth was full of ugly and vulgar words--all the traces of her common
upbringing coming uppermost.
At length, out of breath and exhausted, she broke into sobs. This
quietened her and after a while she asked what had become of her
mother.
Fenella, who was alone with her (the woman warder having gone home
ill), answered that some good women had carried her mother away and
were going to take care of her.
"And where is...."
"Mr. Gell? Upstairs. He sent me down to speak to you."
"I won't speak to anyone. They're all alike. They're only torturing
me."
Fenella reproved the girl tenderly. Could she not see that the
Deemster himself was trying to help her? He had adjourned the Court
to give her another chance, and if she could only explain away the
evidence of the scarf....
"I won't explain anything. Why can't you leave me be?"
"You heard what the Deemster said, Bessie? Tell the truth; the whole
truth; it will be best for you; best for everybody."
After that Bessie became calmer, and then Fenella (little knowing
what she was doing for herself) pleaded with the girl to confess.
"I think I understand," she said. "Sometimes a girl loves a man so
much that she cannot deny him anything. Thousands and thousands of
women have been like that. Not the worst women either. But the dark
hour comes when the man does not marry her--perhaps cannot--and then
she tries to cover up everything. And that's your case, isn't it?"
"Don't ask me. I can't tell you," cried Bessie.
Fenella tried again, still more tenderly.
"And sometimes a girl who has done wrong tries to shield somebody
else--somebody who is as guilty as herself, perhaps guiltier.
Thousands of women have done that too, ever since the world began.
They shouldn't, though. A bad man counts on a woman's silence. She
should speak out, no matter who may be shamed. And that's what you
are going to do, aren't you?"