"Well--er--for being associated abroad with--er--a
certain type of hotel synonymous with a disorderly house--"

_Vivie_: "Indeed? Have you tried them? My mother has managed the
hotels of an English Company abroad till she retired altogether from
the management some years ago. It was a Company in which Sir George
Crofts--"

_Judge_, interposing: "We need not go into that--I think the Counsel
for the prosecution is not entitled to ask such questions."

_Counsel_: "I submit, Me Lud, that it is germane to my case that the
prisoner's upbringing might have--"

_Vivie_: "I am quite willing to give you all the information I
possess as to my upbringing. My mother who has resided mainly at
Brussels for many years preferred that I should be educated in
England. I was placed at well-known boarding schools till I was old
enough to enter Newnham. I passed as a Third Wrangler at Cambridge
and then joined the firm of Fraser and Warren. As you seem so
interested in my relations, I might inform you that I have not many.
My mother's sister, Mrs. Burstall, the widow of Canon Burstall,
resides at Winchester; my grandfather, Lieutenant Warren, was killed
in the Crimea--or more likely died of neglected wounds owing to the
shamefully misconducted, man-conducted Army Medical Service of those
days. My mother in early days was better known as Miss Kate
Vavasour. She was the intimate friend of a celebrated barrister
who--"

_Judge_, intervening: "We have had enough of this discursive
evidence which really does not bear on the case at all. I must ask
the prosecuting counsel to keep to the point and not waste the time
of the court."

_Prosecuting Counsel_ (who has meantime received three or four
energetic notes from his leader, begging him to remember his
instructions and not to be an ass): "Very good M'Lud." (To Vivie)
"Do you know Mr. David Vavasour Williams, a barrister?"

_Vivie_: "I have heard of him."

_Counsel_: "Have you spoken of him as your cousin?"

_Vivie_: "I may have done. He is closely related to me."

_Counsel_: "I put it to you that _you_ are David Williams, or at any
rate that you have posed as being that person."

_Judge_, interposing with a weary air: "_Who_ is David Williams?"

_Counsel_: "Well--er--a member of the Bar--well known in the
criminal courts--Shillito case--"

_Judge_: "Really? I had not heard of him. Proceed."

_Counsel_ (to Vivie): "You heard my questions?"

_Vivie_: "I have never posed as being