ritableness and other destructive and despoiling
human traits. I have no quarrel with the character of the testimony with
which it is sought to convict the defendant, for circumstantial
evidence is the most reliable, the most convincing, the least subject to
perjury of any evidence recognized by the law, and, as I shall undertake
to demonstrate to you, it is absolutely unassailable when each link of
the chain fits perfectly in every other one. I am not unmindful of the
very strong case which the district attorney has made against the
defendant, and it may be that his contention is the correct one. That is
a matter for you to determine."

There was a little stir in the courtroom at this extraordinary
statement, and Hilda looked at her husband and then at her brother and
the hot flush of resentment dyed her white face to the hair.

"The motive of malpractice on the child," Silvia went on evenly, "and a
troublesome _liaison_ with the mother do, indeed, seem to be powerful,
but what can be said for those motives when I prove to your entire
satisfaction that the setting of this fracture and the subsequent
treatment and final results are among some of the best ever attending
such cases in this large city; that the tuberculosis of the knee is the
recurrence of a disease which had attacked the child five years before
in the glands of the neck and which broke forth afresh in the knee
because of her low physical condition and the immediate injury to the
knee; that what I shall present will so conclusively prove the
impossibility of a _liaison_ between Dr. Earl and Mrs. Bell that there
cannot even remain the suspicion of such a thing?

"The mystery of her support since last April I alone can clear up with
checks and other evidence so convincing in character as to leave no
doubt. It is embarrassing but necessary to bring myself as a witness
into this trial. I found this poor woman with a great and secret sorrow,
not knowing how to earn a living and by industrial independence develop
the best qualities of her nature, and I undertook to teach her
self-reliance and to lead her into the new life of social and economic
freedom. Had she been thus trained from girlhood this tragedy would have
been impossible, and her life would have been full of beauty, for I have
never known a sweeter character. In the meantime I loaned--not gave, but
loaned her the money to live upon. She would have resented a gift. She
was making splendid progress wi