Two Coins: A Biographical Novel (Women of Determination and Courage)

Gasper turns to Mr. Fish’s testimony. “There’s the suggestion he perjured himself to protect Mr. Hastie. If Mr. Fish planned to invent his testimony, he could easily say he was going out to smoke a cigar and coming back sooner than expected found Mr. Wilson giving Miss Pigot a kiss. Your Lordship is asked to believe Mr. Fish invented an unnatural story. If this is true, death wouldn’t be too bad for Mr. Fish.

“But if the story is false, why wouldn’t Mr. Wilson swear he hadn’t taken two quarts of beer, or that he asked Mr. Fish to look at the woodwork, or that he didn’t say to Miss Pigot he’d had too much beer. He did what becomes a man. He didn’t deny anything but sailed close to the wind. Nitya Gopal Mukherjee’s evidence was supposed to demolish Mr. Fish, but it’s fallen through.”