"Yes, yes; I know. I've a great deal to tell you some time, Mary, but not now. You see I've passed through a great deal during the last twenty-four hours. All life has changed. What the future may bring forth God only knows. But I've done the right thing now. I sometimes think, Mary, that one of the greatest sins in life, the sin which leads the way to more than any other, is that of cowardice; and I was a coward. My God! what a coward I was! And I'm paying for it now. But for that I might have been a happy man; I might have had——"
He rose to his feet as he spoke and walked across the room. He seemed to be pondering deeply.
"Of course you despise me, Mary," he said. "You cannot help it. Everyone despises me. It's right and natural. I needn't tell you any further about it now, need I? You've read what is in the paper? You understand?"
"Yes, I think, I—I—I think I understand. But, father, we must save Paul! Whatever happens, we must save Paul!"
"If it is possible," said the judge. "For, oh! God helping me—— Yes, I should die! It would kill me if—if the worst comes to the worst! That's why I came, Mary. I must have another talk with her. I think after to-morrow I shall be free; but I must go to Manchester then, perhaps to London. There are so many formalities to be complied with. But never mind, formalities or no formalities, nothing must stand in the way of his salvation."
"He's not guilty, father; you know that? He's been shielding someone all the time. That's why he would have no one to defend him. That's why he confided in no one. I'm sure of it!"
The judge nodded his head. He, too, had been thinking deeply, and his trained mind had gone farther into the matter than that of Mary.
"Yes; I've been thinking of that," was his reply. "In fact, I felt almost sure of it when I went to see him to-day."
"You've, been to see him to-day? What? Since what you said in the court? What did he say? How did he look? Did he—did he——"
"The thing that troubles me," said the judge, interrupting, "is this—who is Paul trying to shield?"