Q. Would you say it was obsessive?

Mr Pettigrew: I object, My Lord.

Q. How would you characterize it, the way she watched her mistress?

A. Observant, I’d say. But then it must have been so new for her. I am trying to be fair.

Q. What of the speculation concerning a love affair between the prisoner and her mistress?

A. I have heard it. I wouldn’t want to comment. I believe love affairs are matters that can only be confirmed by the protagonists, though such vast quantities of ink are wasted over them.

Q. But do you believe that was what happened between them?

A. I wouldn’t know.

Q. Would it shock you, to hear such a thing said about Mrs Benham?

A. What difference would that make to whether it happened or not?

Q. You were at the soirée at Levenhall on 26 January?

A. I was.

Q. Did you observe the exchange between the prisoner and her mistress in the drawing room that evening?

A. I did.

Q. Tell these gentlemen what you saw.

A. The prisoner came into the drawing room, just after champagne had been passed. We were celebrating a successful lecture series, sponsored by the Society. The soirée was intended to be a commemoration of the last lecture. The prisoner entered the room. She was distressed. Well, she was shaking, she raised her fist. Who can say if it was anger or fear or sorrow? Those things so often look the same. She was shaking, at any rate. You wouldn’t have mistaken it for happiness.

Q. Did she say anything?

A. Oh, yes. Oh, yes, she did. She came very close to Meg, right up to her so Meg was forced to take a step back, and she shook her fist again, as I’ve said, and then she said, ‘This is death.’

Q. You’re sure that’s what you heard?

A. Quite sure. And at such a volume, too, you couldn’t help but hear it if you were anywhere in that room.

CROSS-EXAMINED BY MR PETTIGREW

Mr Pettigrew: ‘This is death.’ That’s what you heard?

A. Yes.

Q. You didn’t think that strange?

A. That the maid had descended the stair to threaten her mistress’s life? Strange, indeed. The evening could barely limp along after that.

Q. Not strange in that sense, Miss Elliot. Strange that the prisoner would make a threat in the present tense. Surely she’d say, ‘I will kill you,’ or something of that sort? The future tense?

A. I thought perhaps it was due to her poor command of the English language, Mr Pettigrew.

Q. Did she have a poor command of the language?

A. I hardly heard her put three words together before that night.

Q. Then how would you know what her relationship was to the English language?

[Admonition from the court to the gallery for laughing and disturbance.]

Q. She could have been timid? Shy?

A. It’s possible. Though she had a forward look about her.

Q. I see. But you would expect a mere dressing maid to be quiet in the company of ladies such as yourselves.