“A man who has committed a crime.”
“And who decides that he has committed a crime?”
“Why, a jury, I suppose.”
“Exactly,” Mason said, with a smile. “So far, I have been very fortunate in having juries agree with me that the persons I represented were not criminals.”
Loftus said, “That isn’t conclusive.”
“Judges think it is,” Mason said, still smiling.
“What interest can a man of your ilk possibly have in our business?”
“I don’t like that word ilk,” Mason observed. “It may be I won’t like your business. In any event, I told you why I was calling on you. If you’d given me the information I asked over the telephone, you might have spared yourself a disagreeable interview.”
“It’ll be disagreeable to you,” Loftus said, “not to me. I hate to go to the expense of consulting my legal department every time some pettifogging attorney wants to pry into my business… But now I’ve started, I’m going to see it through.”
“Very commendable,” Mason observed, carefully selecting a cigarette from his cigarette case, and lighting it.