His old mocking smile came back.
"Have I conducted his case as if I believed him guilty?" he asked.
"No, no; but you are his lawyer; you are bound not to let your real thoughts appear. But in your secret heart you did not, could not, believe he was free from a crime to which he is linked by so many criminating circumstances?"
But his strange smile remaining unchanged, she seemed to waken to a sudden doubt, and leaping impetuously to his side, laid her hand on his arm and exclaimed:
"Oh, sir, if you have ever cherished one hope of his innocence, no matter how faint or small, tell me of it, even if this last disclosure has convinced you of its folly!"
Giving her an icy look, he drew his arm slowly from her grasp and replied:
"Mr. Mansell has never been considered guilty by me."
"Never?"
"Never."