Wilkie Collins

“ She came back to me unwillingly, like a woman acting under some influence which the utmost exertion of her will was powerless to resist.
"Do you believe John Jago is still a living man?"
She put the question vehemently, desperately, as if the words rushed out of her mouth in spite of her.
"I do not believe it," I answered.
"Remember what John Jago has suffered at the hands of my brothers," she persisted. "Is it not in your experience that he should take a sudden resolution to leave the farm?" ”

“ Miss Meadowcroft returned with us to the farm, preserving unbroken silence on the way back. I could detect nothing in her bearing which suggested any compassionate feeling for the prisoners in her stern and secret nature. On Naomi's withdrawal to her own room, we were left together for a few minutes; and then, to my astonishment, the outwardly merciless woman showed me that she, too, was one of Eve's daughters, and could feel and suffer, in her own hard way, like the rest of us. She suddenly stepped close up to me, and laid her hand on my arm.
"You are a lawyer, ain't you?" she asked. ”

“ They know the rest. This, on my oath, is a true confession. I make it of my own free will, repenting me sincerely that I did not make it before.
(Signed) "Silas Meadowcroft."
I laid down the paper, and looked at Naomi once more. She spoke to me with a strange composure. Immovable determination was in her eye, immovable determination was in her voice.
"Silas has lied away his brother's life to save himself," she said. "I see cowardly falsehood and cowardly cruelty in every line on that paper. Ambrose is innocent, and the time has come to prove it." ”