its extreme brevity and a suggestion of reticence in the narrative.
"Have you concluded?" asked the Court, reflecting the general surprise.
"I have," replied the minister, with the same quiet voice in which he had given his testimony.
"Begin your cross-examination," instructed Judge Brennan.
"Who is the man who brought these diamonds to you?" asked Searle, hurling the question swiftly.
"I cannot tell you," answered the minister gravely.
"Why can you not tell?" The voice of Searle was harshly insistent. "Don't you know who the man was?"
"I do, most assuredly."
"Why can you not tell it?"
"Because the secret is not mine."
"Not yours?" A sneer appeared on the lips of Searle.
"It came to me by way of the Protestant confessional," explained the minister.
"The Protestant confessional! What do you mean by that?" barked the prosecutor.
"Simply," replied the minister, "that the instinct of confession is very strong in every nature moved to penitence and a hope of reform; so that every minister and priest of whatever faith becomes the repository of a vast number of confessions of fault and failure, some trivial and some grave. I used the term 'Protestant confessional' because the Roman Catholic Church erects the confessional to a place of established and formal importance. In most other communions it is merely incidental to pastoral experience, but none the less it is a factor in all effort at rehabilitation of character."
"And you will not give the name, even to protect yourself?"
