Page:The Rejuvenation Of Miss Semaphore.pdf/225

 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