New Britain herald., 1916-02-17
EPISODE V. Her Fathers Death.

psychologists and those SclentlStS who study the focus of consciousness 1 is dual, and that unless the sub-con- sciOus mind supplements the con- scious concentration, the attention is easily diverted. Thus a sailor steer ing by the north star quivering in the tail of the Little. Bear is readily di verted by the flashing of meteor across the heavens, since it is only his outer consciousness that is fixed upon the star; but a whole swarm of me- teors might have streaked the sky unheeded when Ulysses, life in hand, steered between Scylla and Charyb dis, and all the din of the siege failed to disturb Archimides bent over his figures in the sand. For here con- scious and sub-conscious forces were welded into a great intensity. In like fashion, Mary Page, sitting in the prisoners dock with the Damo clean sword of justice above her, was now unconscious of the crowd in the courtroom. She no longer heard the boys who slipped from the reporters table to the door carrying the news of the trial for the special editions; she no longer felt the eyes of the crowd upon her. She was even uncon-
 
 the Prosecutors desk, which had at first rasped her nerves so unbeara bly,. Now mind and soul were alike con- centrated upon Langdon and upon the slow building of the evidence that was to free her from the charge of having murdered David Pollock
 A tumult of old memories was surging about her, as witness after witness told the tragedy of years be- fore; Ca tragedy that had so grim a sequel in the presently and yet there were strange nightmarish blanks in those memories-spaces where fact had to give place to imagination, and during which she had hung in the nullity of uncounted moments. merg ing like person under ether to momentary pain-scared consciousness, only to sink whirling back into ob- livion. And it was of these moments of which Mary herself knew only by hearsay that the witnesses were now testifying.
 They were an odd contract. these defenders of Mary. Mrs. Page, slender, frail, bowed with grief and anxiety; MacPherson in his rough clothes and high boots a veritable Scotch giant with a square beard; two distinguished looking men with the grave kindly faces of those whose lives are spent in battling against the dual enemies of disease and mental suffering; Jeanette Mary's maid and all the others whose words were to shatter the great om1nous temple of accusatory facts raised by the State.
 Mary did not realize the subtlety with which Langdon was calling these witnesses. In fact it was doubt full if any of those in the courtroom expect perhaps the Prosecutor and the Judge appreciated the skill With which he brought out each detail in it's turn. There was no confusion of facts no forcing of a conglomerate array of evidence upon the jury; but bit by bit as one pieces together a jig-saw puzzle he was fitting into a perfect picture for those present, the tragedy of the life of Mary Page.
 In pursuance of his method of bringing out events as they had hap pened he had already, at a bar side conference" asked permission to re- call his witnesses a second, or even a third time. Thus it came as sur prise only to the spectators when Mrs. Page again took her place in the wit ness box.
 She looked pitifully pale and wan, and Langdon's voice was very gentle as he said
 Mrs. Page, you told us yesterday of how your daughter, struggling with her drunken father, was truck by him and fled screaming from the house. Will you tell the court, please, what followed that fight? Did you go aft CT her or remain at home?"
 Ut was impossible for me to fol- low as quickly as Mr. Langdon did," she said quietly, glancing toward the Judge. 80 I stood at the gate wait ing, feeling sure that it would only be a very few minutes before he would return with my poor, half-crazed girl.'
 Was there anyone with you?"
 At first quite group of our neighbors were t~e, drawn by the sound of---of-Mary's screams But they soon followed MT. Langdon and I was left alone"
 Did you return to the house?'
 ''I went back as far as the win 1 dow,' she said in some hesitation. "It-it was very cold and I wanted to get a wrap, but-I-was afraid of my husband"