 quantum.«
    Accordingly, he commenced his interrogatories with uninteresting questions,
which admitted of instant reply.
    »You are, I think, the sister of the prisoner?«
    »Yes, sir.«
    »Not the full sister, however?«
    »No, sir - we are by different mothers.«
    »True; and you are, I think, several years older than your sister?«
    »Yes, sir,« etc.
    After the advocate had conceived that, by these preliminary and unimportant
questions, he had familiarised the witness with the situation in which she
stood, he asked, »whether she had not remarked her sister's state of health to
be altered, during the latter part of the term when she had lived with Mrs.
Saddletree?«
    Jeanie answered in the affirmative.
    »And she told you the cause of it, my dear, I suppose?« said Fairbrother, in
an easy, and, as one may say, an inductive sort of tone.
    »I am sorry to interrupt my brother,« said the Crown Counsel, rising; »but I
am in your Lordships' judgment, whether this be not a leading question?«
    »If this point is to be debated,« said the presiding Judge, »the witness
must be removed.«
    For the Scottish lawyers regard with a sacred and scrupulous horror every
question so shaped by the counsel examining, as to convey to a witness the least
intimation of the nature of the answer which is desired from him. These
scruples, though founded on an excellent principle, are sometimes carried to an
absurd pitch of nicety, especially as it is generally easy for a lawyer who has
his wits about him to elude the objection. Fairbrother did so in the present
case.
    »It is not necessary to waste the time of the Court, my Lord; since the
King's Counsel thinks it worth while to object to the form of my question, I
will shape it otherwise. - Pray, young woman, did you ask your sister any
question when you observed her looking unwell? - take courage - speak out.«
    »I asked her,« replied Jeanie, »what ailed her.«
    »Very well - take your own time - and what was the answer she made?«
continued Mr. Fairbrother.
    Jeanie was silent, and looked deadly pale. It was not that she at any one
instant entertained an idea of the possibility of prevarication - it was the
natural hesitation to extinguish the last spark of hope that remained for her
sister.
    »Take courage, young woman,
