Ways and Means by Henry Cecil Page B

shall I call your Lordship? looked Elizabeth. She looked it so well that the Judge was about to tell her to behave herself when he realized she hadn’t said anything. He felt he couldn’t very well tell her not to look like that. She would say or look ‘Like what?’ and they wouldn’t get anywhere.
    ‘Just answer the questions.’
    ‘Did he ever ill-treat you?’
    ‘Well, it depends what you mean by ill-treat. He never hit me or anything like that.’
    ‘Then you never felt frightened of him.’
    ‘Oh — no — not frightened.’
    ‘Then you didn’t threaten to throw yourself in the Thames?’
    ‘Oh — yes, I did. You see — perhaps it was very wrong of me, but I wanted to stay with Nicholas — with Nicholas and Petula.’ As she added ‘Petula’, Petula nodded brightly from the well of the Court.
    ‘And I thought he — they — mightn’t keep me unless I made up some kind of a story. Do you think me very wicked?’
    ‘Don’t ask me questions,’ the Judge almost shouted. ‘Did Mr Drewe do anything to make you leave your husband?’
    ‘Did he do anything?’
    ‘Yes.’
    ‘Oh, my Lord,’ said Elizabeth. ‘I’m so sorry, my Lord,’ she added, ‘but it’s a difficult question to answer. Did he do anything? He didn’t say anything, if that’s what you mean. He didn’t ask me to leave.’
    ‘What did he do then, if anything?’
    ‘He just was Nicholas, I think. Looking at them down there, it doesn’t seem possible that I should have made such a mistake.’
    ‘Mistake?’
    ‘In marrying my husband.’
    ‘Have you not considered Mrs Drewe’s feelings in the matter?’
    ‘She’s very understanding, my Lord.’
    ‘I’m beginning to doubt it.’
    ‘What is your relationship to Mr Drewe?’
    ‘Friendly, my Lord, very friendly.’
    ‘What were you doing under the table?’
    ‘A sort of game, my Lord, rather a nice sort of a game.’ So the case went on and eventually the evidence was completed and counsel on each side addressed the jury. Finally, the Judge summed up. Among other things he said this:
    ‘I am very glad to have your assistance, members of the jury, in this somewhat extraordinary case. I confess I should have the greatest difficulty in making up my own mind as to the truth of the matter. Fortunately I shall not have to do so. That will be your duty. You have to decide whether the plaintiff has proved to your satisfaction that the defendant has deliberately enticed his wife away from him. The fact that she was tired of him, if you believe that she was, did not entitle the defendant to take her away. On the other hand, if the wife left the husband entirely of her own free will and uninfluenced by any deliberate act of the defendant, this action must fail. There is at the moment, in my view, insufficient evidence of any misconduct between the wife and the defendant, but, even if you think that it had taken place, that would be no ground for finding in favour of the plaintiff by itself. The possibility of misconduct is only material as showing a motive for the defendant’s enticing the wife away from the plaintiff.’
    The Judge then reviewed the evidence, gave some directions on the question of damages and the jury retired. Poor Judge, poor jury. In the normal case the truth has a nasty habit of coming out, but in Merridew v. Drewe, Basil and Nicholas, with the assistance of their wives, had so arranged the evidence that it was a very difficult task to come to any conclusion at all. They did not in fact mind what view the jury took, and if the jury disagreed Basil would have found an excuse immediately for discontinuing the action so as to enable comment to be made in the Press. They had introduced into the case a large variety of subjects which many members of the public and all the popular newspapers love. There was a wealth of headlines from which editors or sub-editors could choose. Kisses and corsets, games under the kitchen table, the trusting wife, the beautiful