"Well—that's all I remember," replied Pettifer briskly. He rose and put his chair back. "Except—" he added slowly.
"Yes?"
"Except that there was left upon my mind when the verdict was published a vague feeling of doubt."
"There!" cried Mrs. Pettifer triumphantly. "You hear him, Harold."
But Hazelwood paid no attention to her. He was gazing at his brother-in-law with a good deal of uneasiness.
"Why?" he asked. "Why were you in doubt, Robert?"
But Pettifer had said all that he had any mind to say.
"Oh, I can't remember why," he exclaimed. "I am very likely quite wrong.
Come, Margaret, it's time that we were getting home."
He crossed over to Hazlewood and held out his hand. Hazlewood, however, did not rise.
"I don't think that's quite fair of you, Robert," he said. "You don't disturb my confidence, of course—I have gone into the case thoroughly—but I think you ought to give me a chance of satisfying you that your doubts have no justification."