“Roger Kingston Gretorex, the jury, after a careful and patient
hearing, have found you guilty of the wilful murder of Jervis Lexton.
The sentence of the Court upon you is that you be taken from here to a
lawful prison, and from there to a place of execution; and that you be
there hanged by the neck until you be dead; and that your body be
buried within the precincts of the prison in which you shall have been
last confined after your conviction; and may the Lord have mercy on
your soul.”
As Ivy Lexton, supported by a number of her friends and acquaintances,
left the Old Bailey by a back way, she chanced in the passage to meet
Mrs. Gretorex face to face. The eyes of the two women crossed--and a
stab of horrible pain flashed across the worn, yet even now calm, face
of Roger Gretorex’s mother.