"You believe you can save him?"
"I will, I will!" he cried. "I have sinned, but God will never allow me to suffer this. He could not. One thing my confession to-day will do, too—it will give me time. There's sure to be some delay before another judge is appointed, and the whole case will have to be tried again. Meanwhile I must be up and doing."
"Oh, if she were only conscious!" said Mary. "But the doctor says that perhaps she will be unconscious for weeks, and under no circumstances must she be questioned."
"Did she speak of me?" asked the judge.
"Only indirectly."
"Did she seem to despise me—hate me?"
The girl was silent, and the judge understood what her silence meant.
"It's just," he said. "It's just. But I must save Paul!"
A knock came to the door, and the woman whom Dr. White had obtained told them there was food in the dining-room.
"Thank you," said the judge. "Yes, we must eat, Mary; it seems like waste of time, but we must. And after we have had some dinner I'll read through everything again. There must be a way out. Are you well enough to run upstairs, Mary, and ask how—how—she is?"