"I'm out of a job now, sir."
"Well, are your scruples such that you can't lay them aside long enough to do your duty as a citizen?"
Holden flushed.
"I can't lay them aside, no; but it doesn't follow that I can't do my duty as a citizen."
"But," began Glassford in his tone of legal argument, "assuming that the law as it is should be altered, nevertheless, knowing the law, can you lay aside your private views and perform a public duty by applying this law to a given state of facts as the court instructs you?--You understand me, do you?"
"I understand perfectly, sir."
"Well, what do you say?"
"I have no private views that are not public ones; I can't see any distinction. I say that I would not take an oath that might oblige me to vote to kill a man."
The atmosphere became tense.
"But assuming you had taken an oath, would you rather break that oath than discharge your duty?"