“Can’t you persuade him?”
“I’ve tried my best. Mother has tried, too. But, you see, it’s a matter of principle, and when principle is involved, we are all in the same boat. Mother and I would scorn any wrongdoing quite as much as father does.”
“And you’ll give up your life happiness for a principle?”
“Of course. Wouldn’t you? Wouldn’t every decent person? I couldn’t live at all, if I were knowingly doing wrong.”
“But your——” Keefe stopped abruptly.
“I know what you were going to say,” Maida spoke sadly; “you were going to say my father did wrong. I don’t believe he did.”
“Don’t you know?”
“I know in my own heart. I know he is incapable of the crime he was charged with. I’m sure he is shielding some one else, or else some one did it of whom he has no knowledge. But my father commit a crime? Never!”
“Do you care to tell me the details?”
“I don’t know why I shouldn’t. It was long ago, you know, and dad was accused of forgery. It was proved on him—or the jury thought it was—and he was convicted——”