“Yes, I think so, too.”
“I think he should be given the benefit of the doubt.”
“That is dangerous, sometimes.”
“Yes; but I would rather let a dozen guilty ones go free than to cause an innocent person to suffer misfortune.”
“A very lovely way of thinking, but I fear few offenders would come to justice if all agreed with you. However, in this case we shall have to trust to chance. Your gentleman was very eager for a fight, which it would perhaps have been as well to allow him. I do not feel comfortable over that part of it.”
“Oh, but I think it would have been terrible! He has been a friend of ours; has been received at our house on the most intimate terms. Suppose he had fallen, or had caused your death; it would have been dreadful! I should never have ceased to reproach myself for having been the cause of it.”
“You are right. I should have remembered your part in the matter. But this other affair of—What did you say the gentleman’s name is?”
“I didn’t say. He is Robert Clinton, a relative of our former Vice-President of the same name. He is from New York, and is a great friend of some connections of ours.”
“Well, we must settle this affair of his before we go home. They are waiting for your return. You can imagine your brother is in something of an awkward position; the papers gone, and you gone. It would simplify matters if we could have returned with a prisoner. I fear Mr. Clinton will be beyond our reach by to-morrow.”
“He bade me say to you that he would not run away from either you or the authorities, but if he should, and if at last he is proved innocent, we will both be glad.”