"Yes, and I have reason to believe she thinks I shot Balfame, but she would never denounce any one if she could help it."
"Oh, you are all wrong. She believes—like everybody else—that Mrs. Balfame did it. My Aunt Dissosway is superintendent out there and has been listening to her delirious mutterings; she's never mentioned you. I drove out there for the second time on Sunday. I haven't told Mother, as she is one of the few that believe Mrs. Balfame innocent—but when Dr. Anna is coherent at all, that is the impression my aunt gets—but—Oh—of course she's only guessing like everybody else. She couldn't know—she was out at the Houston farm—"
Rush was sitting up very straight.
"Has any one been permitted to see her?"
"Of course not."
"Not that it would matter. Delirious people all have insane fancies. But I don't believe she had any such idea before she came down, and besides it is not true. Mrs. Balfame is innocent."
"Of course as her lawyer you must persuade yourself that she is."
"If I had not believed in her, I would not have taken the case, great as my desire would be to help her. I am no good at pleading against my convictions; I'd fail with the jury. If I had believed her guilty, I should have got her the best counsel possible and helped him all I could."
Alys had a curious sense of physical paralysis, or of spiritual dissociation from her body, she made no attempt to decide which; but that the cause was an intense nervous excitement she was well aware. As she stared at him with dilated eyes, he was suddenly convinced that Miss Austin was right in assuming that Alys had some secret and important knowledge bearing upon the crime. Was her reticence due to the common Elsinore loyalty? If so, why her reserve with him who would have parted with his life rather than with any facts that still further would incriminate Mrs. Balfame.