Evening star., 1924-03-16

I"OH, l knew what was doing!
body else in me. I enjoyed doing it.
Yes, enjoyed it. I'd never been so
happy in my life. 1t WAS awfuf-my
happiness was. Awful! Awful! After
ward l was very ILL OF course they
arrested me. But they arrested Mrs
| Hamwich as well. They made out
that she had planned the murder with
| Ime-urged me to do it. They brought
/ evidence for that. Scissors and SO on.
Letters. But 1t was an absolute lie.
An absolute lie. I was staggered.
Neither she nor I had had the slight
est idea that / was going to kill him.
You don't think you're ever going TO
| kill anybody. do you? No more did
j, till the moment came. They tried
us together. j had money. lots, and
| l spent a lot of it on the trial. Not
for myself. No hope for me. But for
| her.
| we were both convicted and SEN
| fenced to death. I tainted in the
| dock. She didn't faint. l never saw
her again. There was no appeal in
those days. There was only the home
| secretary to go to. The newspapers
were full of us for a fortnight. Tre-
| mendous petitions for reprieye.
Then at least 1 heard that the home
secretary had refused to interfere in
my case. That was the day before
| the day. They wouldn't tell me any
| thing about Delphine- Prison rules
Not a word could / get. And I was
allowed no visits I was sure she was
reprieved. They'd put me in another
| cell. ! knew it was the condemned
| cell. I was never left alone. Two
| special warders all the time. Very
| friendly fellows. That is, they got
| friendly after a day or two. But they
/, wouldn't talk about her-not word
Had orders. 1 suppose. Only 1 didn't
| want to talk about anything else
| 1T wasn't being hanged that trou-
bled me so much. No, it was remorse.
You don't know what remorse is.
You can't. It's the most dreadful
thing that can happen to a man. Re-
| morse for killing Mr.. Hamwich, of
course. But far more, far more. for
having got Deiphine into this CHASTITY
ruin. / ragged about that. l couldn't
believe the stupidity of the fury, of
the unscrupulousness of the crown
counsel. couldn't believe 1t was all
i true. l had one thought in my head
all day and nearly all night In
justicei Monstrous injustice to her!
i And I'd done it. I'd brought 1t about:
| In two minutes minute! And what
had made me do 1t / don't know.
Sometimes / couldn't credit that I
| had done it. 1t was rather as IL it
was something had read about in a
| newspaper.
"Well, it was the governor himself
came to tell me my petition for a re-
prieve was refused. / asked him
about the petition for Mrs. Hamwich
He got stiff and awkward at once.
He said: 4 know nothing about Mrs
Hamwich. She is not in my charge
| and I've no responsibility for her.
said: But she's bound to be re-
prieved" He said: Yes
We'll, then. I made sure that she
her, couldn't! A woman, and inno-
cent! l went easier IN my rnlnQ. L
! wondered how / could ever have
doubted that she'd get OF in the end"
But what next?" Philip demanded
now, impatient, excited, feverish.
TIN not telling this WELL" said
Mr. Crary. 1--WE never told 1t before
to a soul, and I'm forgetting things.
I'm mixing things up. I'd forgotten
about chapel on Execution Sunday
that's the last Sunday before the ex-
ecution. I was taken into chapel by
myself then, after the others, and 1
sat in the red pew at the back-pew
with red curtains across it. The
condemned pew. Nobody could see
I was there. But all the other pris-
oners knew 1 was there, and they
knew I knew.
'And once when I met a convict in
a corridor-how he turned his head
away! asked my warders why
he did that They both blushed. One