“This is really most extraordinary! I cannot bring myself to believe that that young woman could be a thief. Come on downtown with me to my office, Owen, and let us talk this case over. Perhaps by putting our heads together we shall be able to convince ourselves of your fiancée’s innocence.”
Half an hour later they sat in the lawyer’s private office, and Owen narrated every detail of the case, and displayed the incriminating envelope and the telegram, which he pieced together on Judge Lawrence’s desk.
“It is really very strange,” declared the judge. “Looking at all the evidence from the standpoint of a lawyer, I should have no hesitancy in declaring that the young woman must be guilty. And yet——” He stopped short, and, leaning back in his chair, gazed dreamily toward the ceiling.
“And yet what?” queried Owen eagerly.
“I was just thinking of a scene which took place in this office a few months ago. It was almost the same scene as is being enacted here now; only, in that instance, Miss Worthington sat in the chair which you now occupy, and you were the subject under discussion.”
He smiled whimsically. “And I couldn’t help thinking, my dear Owen, as that scene came back to me, how very much superior the other sex is to ours when it comes to loyalty and faith. I remember that Miss Worthington, that day, refused even to consider the possibility of your being guilty. She declared that no matter what evidence[Pg 49] might be brought against you, she would never believe that you were a thief.”
Owen flushed painfully, and a tender look came to his eyes. “Dear little girl,” he murmured; “I’m a brute to doubt her. But the evidence is convincing, judge. You must admit that there is no——”
“The evidence in your case—the circumstantial evidence—appeared to be equally convincing, Owen,” interrupted the judge. “Yet she refused to accept it; and it turned out afterward that her faith was not misplaced.”
Sheridan looked at him eagerly. “Then you really think that there’s a chance of her being innocent?”
“I do. Your own narrow escape ought to have taught you that there is always a chance of circumstantial evidence leading to a wrong conclusion. Now, there is one thing about that telegram which you found in the waste-paper basket which, in my opinion, indicates that Miss Worthington did not steal the pink envelope. Apparently it is a point which has escaped your observation.”