CHAPTER XXII.
A SCENE IN COURT.
Miss Prudence Semaphore, in after years
describing her sensations when placed in the
witness box, was accustomed to say she
didn't know whether she stood on her head
or her heels. If any desire to experience
the feeling, without enduring the varied
miseries that a cruel fate inflicted on the
unhappy lady, let them, if unaccustomed to
public speaking, be called on for an after-*dinner
speech. The swimming in the head,
the sea of faces dimly seen, the weakness in
the knees, dryness of the tongue and throat,
confusion of thought and general helplessness
experienced, will help them to realise her
emotions. The impossibility of dying suddenly
then and there, ere forced to break
silence, will appear a hardship, but they will
be spared the terror of having somehow
brought themselves within the clutches of the
