“Further, admitting he did lose it, there is no particular reason why he should not have found it again. Nor does the evidence against him stop even at this point. It is certain his clothes were wet, and stained with clay of a reddish colour. The banks and bed of the stream running beside the divisional road are, as you know, of that description. Depend upon it, Miss Moffat, Scott is throwing away his best chance by persisting in silence. Nothing in my opinion really can serve him except opening his mouth.”
“I admit the truth and reason of all you say,” she replied, “but faith is sometimes stronger than reason, and I have faith Scott is not guilty.”
“Unfortunately a jury have to decide on facts, not faith,” said Mr. D’Almarez rising to take his leave. “Of course, I shall do all in my power for him, and if he is found guilty, we must try to prevent his being hung; but I really think if he would only have placed full confidence in me, we might have got him off with only a sentence of manslaughter. Perhaps he may still think better of it.”
“No,” Grace answered, “I do not think he will—I hope he cannot. If after what he said to me to-day he were to confess that he did cause Mr. Brady’s death, I should never be able to believe any one again.”
“Ah! Miss Moffat, you do not know how great the temptation is to tell a falsehood if one is afraid of telling the truth. I do not quarrel with his statements on the ground of morality, but only on that of common sense; but then that is lawyer’s way of looking at such things. It is not to be expected that a lady should take the same view. I trust it may all turn out better than I anticipate.”
Miss Moffat drove back to Maryville in a very sad and perplexed state of mind; she had seen none of her friends at Kilcurragh, except that one at whose house her interview with Mr. D’Almarez took place, and she had no desire to see them. Amos Scott’s position would, she knew, be the prominent topic of interest, and she did not possess sufficient moral courage to desire to combat popular opinion single-handed.
The more she thought about the matter the more conclusive seemed the lawyer’s statements.
Notwithstanding her own determined advocacy, she felt that away from Amos her belief in his innocency was not strong enough to enable her to discard the extremely ugly doubts raised in her mind by Mr. D’Almarez’s statement of the case.
Scott might believe that his sole chance of escape lay in reiteration of his innocence, and if this were so, Miss Moffat felt she could forgive his falsehood. What she could not forgive, however, was his religious hypocrisy supposing his statement untrue, and with feminine impetuosity she rushed to this conclusion—
“If Amos be guilty he is the worst man in the world.”