You spoke, of course, as an advocate--but I have heard it said--that you
expressed your own personal belief. Wherever the case is discussed,
there are still--as you know--two opinions--one more merciful than the
other. If the line you took was not merely professional; if you
personally believed your own case; can you give me some of the
arguments--you were probably unable to state them all in court--that
convinced you? Let me have something wherewith to meet my mother. She
won't look at this altogether from the worldly point of view. She will
have a standard of her own. Merely to belittle the thing, as long past
and forgotten, won't help me. But if I _could_ awaken her pity!--if you
could give me the wherewithal--"
Sir James turned away. He walked to the window and stood there a minute,
his face invisible. When he returned, his pallor betrayed what his
steady and dignified composure would otherwise have concealed.
"I can tell you what Mrs. Sparling told me--in prison--with the accents
of a dying woman--what I believed then--what I believe now.--Moreover, I
have some comparatively recent confirmation of this belief.--But this is
too public!"--he looked round the library--"we might be disturbed.
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