Francis smiled.
“You evidently don't approve of any measure of personal choice as to the work which one takes up.”
“Certainly I do not, sir, in our profession. The only brief I would refuse would be a losing or an ill-paid one. I don't conceive it to be our business to prejudge a case.”
“I see,” Francis murmured. “Go on, Fawsitt.”
“There's a rumour about,” the young man continued, “that you are only going to plead where the chances are that your client is innocent.”
“There's some truth in that,” Francis admitted.
“If I could leave a little before the three months, sir, I should be glad,” Fawsitt said. “I look at the matter from an entirely different point of view.”
“You shall leave when you like, of course, Fawsitt, but tell me what that point of view is?”
“Just this, sir. The simplest-minded idiot who ever stammered through his address, can get an innocent prisoner off if he knows enough of the facts and the law. To my mind, the real triumph in our profession is to be able to unwind the meshes of damning facts and force a verdict for an indubitably guilty client.”
“How does the moral side of that appeal to you?” his senior enquired.