Page:The Great Harry Thaw Case.djvu/170

 CHAPTER XIV.

Thaw's Mother on the Stand.

AGED WOMAN WITH ALL HER WEALTH AND SOCIAL POSITION, A PATHETIC FIGURE—BENT WITH GRIEF AND SHAKEN WITH SOBS—TELLS HOW SON WEPT VIOLENTLY AT NIGHT—FIRST HEARD EVELYN NESBIT'S NAME ON THANKSGIVING BEFORE MARRIAGE—HARRY CONFIDED TO MOTHER THAT GRIEF WAS DUE TO EVELYN'S FATE—CALLED HER VICTIM OF CIRCUMSTANCES—MOTHER APPROVED OF MARRIAGE ON CONDITION THAT MRS. HOLMAN SHOULD NEVER ENTER HER HOUSE AND THAT EVELYN'S PAST SHOULD NEVER BE REFERRED TO—DEFENSE ENDS ITS CASE.

Pathetic as was the trembling figure of Evelyn Nesbit Thaw on the witness stand it paled into insignificance as compared with the appearance of Mrs. William Thaw, the aged mother of the defendant, in the role of a witness, contributing her share of humiliation to the sacrifice for her son's life.

Bent with grief and shaken with sobs, the haughty widow of the millionaire steel king appeared clothed from head to foot in black. For the moment, pride of family and of wealth disappeared before the misery of the ordeal she had to undergo. Momentarily, she would show a flash of spirit, but it disappeared almost as quickly. Even the stern prosecutor softened