"Perhaps it is symptomatic of a lesion in my brain that I should be concerning myself in the case of a strange girl whom I have seen but once—is that also in your thoughts, Doctor McGlore?"
"We'll waive that," he said. "For the sake of argument we'll concede that your indicative peculiarities assume a harmless phase at present. But this Vinsolving girl's case is different—hers were not harmless. Her acts were amply conclusive to establish proof of her mental condition."
"From the district attorney's statement to me I rather got the impression that she did not indulge in any abnormal conduct while before you for examination."
"Did he tell you of her blank refusal to answer the simplest of the questions my associate and I put to her?"
"Doctor," she countered, seeking to woo him into a better humor, "would you construe silence on a woman's part as necessarily a mark of insanity? It is a rare thing, I concede. But might it not sometimes be an admirable thing as well?"
But this gruff old man was not to be cajoled into pleasanter channels than the course his mood steered for him.
"We'll waive that too. Anyhow, the mother's evidence was enough."
"But was there anything else other than the mother's unsupported story for you to go on and be guided by?"
"What else was needed?" he retorted angrily. "What motive could the mother have except the motives that were prompted by mother love? That was a devoted, desolated woman if ever I saw one. Look here! A daughter without cause suddenly turns upon her mother and tries to kill her. Well, then, either she's turned criminal or she has gone crazy!
"But why should I go on debating with you a matter which you don't know anything about in the first place and in which you have no call to interfere in the second place?