She was the intimate friend of a celebrated barrister who--" _Judge_, intervening: "We have had enough of this discursive evidence which really does not bear on the case at all.

I must ask the prosecuting counsel to keep to the point and not waste the time of the court." _Prosecuting Counsel_ (who has meantime received three or four energetic notes from his leader, begging him to remember his instructions and not to be an ass): "Very good M'Lud." (To Vivie) "Do you know Mr.David Vavasour Williams, a barrister ?" _Vivie_: "I have heard of him." _Counsel_: "Have you spoken of him as your cousin ?" _Vivie_: "I may have done.

He is closely related to me." _Counsel_: "I put it to you that _you_ are David Williams, or at any rate that you have posed as being that person." _Judge_, interposing with a weary air: "_Who_ is David Williams ?" _Counsel_: "Well--er--a member of the Bar--well known in the criminal courts--Shillito case--" _Judge_: "Really?
I had not heard of him.

Proceed." _Counsel_ (to Vivie): "You heard my questions ?" _Vivie_: "I have never posed as being other than what I am, a woman much interested in claiming the Parliamentary Franchise for Women; and I do not see what these questions have to do with my indictment, which is a charge of arson.

You introduce all manner of irrelevant matter--" _Counsel_: "You decline to answer my questions ?" (Vivie turns her head away.) _Judge_, to Counsel: "I do not quite see the bearing of your enquiries." _Counsel_: "Why, Me Lud, it is common talk that prisoner is the well-known barrister, David Vavasour Williams; that in this disguise and as a pretended man she passed the necessary examinations and was called to the Bar, and--" _Judge_: "But what bearing has this on the present charge, which is one of Arson ?" _Counsel_: "I was endeavouring by my examination to show that the prisoner has often and successfully passed as a man, and that the evidence of witnesses who affirmed that they only saw _a young man_ at or near the scene of these incendiary fires, that a young man, supposed to have set the stables alight, once dashed in and rescued two horses which had been overlooked, might well have been the prisoner who is alleged to have committed most of these crimes in man's apparel--" _Judge_: "I see." (To Vivie) "Are you David Vavasour Williams ?" _Vivie_: "Obviously not, my Lord.