His Other Wife: A Novel — page 346: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

338 MISTAKEN IDENTITY. CHAPTER XXXVIII. MISTAKEN IDENTITY. There was not a tremor in the deep-toned voice of the prisoner, as he said, folding his white hands before him, as was his usual custom when beginning to speak : ‘‘May it please the court, and gentlemen of the jury, I have risen to claim for myself that right which our com- mon country grants every citizen accused of a crime, to speak. in his own defense. Gentlemen of the jury, you have listened to the most flawless tissue of criminating evidence that it has ever been my misfortune to hear given against any person accused of a crime. It may or may not be truthful evidence. With that I have no concern, since it in no wise relates to myself.” Here the prisoner made a dramatic pause, letting his eyes seek the ground, while all glances turned on him with amazement. He then resumed : “TY deny that I am the man to whom that evidence refers. I deny any acquaintance with the woman calling herself Rachel Croft up to the moment when she appeared before me, according to her statement, a week after my marriage last fall, and when, for reasons I will hereafter explain, I agreed to temporize with what I conceived to be Ecomicbooks:co