His last reserves of resolution seemed to have given way under the overwhelming strain laid on them by the proceedings in court.

His daughter, in stern indulgence to Naomi, mercifully permitted her opinion to glimmer on us only through the medium of quotation from Scripture texts.

If the texts meant anything, they meant that she had foreseen all that had happened; and that the one sad aspect of the case, to her mind, was the death of John Jago, unprepared to meet his end.
I obtained the order of admission to the prison the next morning.
We found Ambrose still confident of the favorable result, for his brother and for himself, of the inquiry before the magistrate.

He seemed to be almost as eager to tell, as Naomi was to hear, the true story of what had happened at the lime-kiln.

The authorities of the prison--present, of course, at the interview--warned him to remember that what he said might be taken down in writing, and produced against him in court.
"Take it down, gentlemen, and welcome," Ambrose replied.