"Precisely."
"I consider it horribly unfair."
"So it is. But if you wish to live in peace, you must submit."
"Peace at that price I have no wish for. This man Mallow lives within the pale of law; the other man is outside of it. Yet, of the two, which would you be quickest to trust?"
The consul-general laughed. "Now you are appealing not to my knowledge of the world but to my instinct."
"Thanks."
"Is there any reason why you should defend Mr. Warrington, as he calls himself?"
The consul-general's wife desperately tried to catch her husband's eye. But either he did not see the glance or he purposely ignored it.
"In defending Mr. Warrington I am defending myself."
"A good point."