"Young man, you talk just as though you were entirely innocent yourself," added Tom, virtuously. "Do you really think you are free from guilt?"
"I think I have done nothing more than my duty."
"Then you believe it is all right to break into your uncle's safe, and take his money and his papers?"
"Circumstances alter cases."
"They don't make black white."
"Sometimes a man's hypocrisy whitewashes his whole life. Sometimes a man lives for years on his ill-gotten gains, and all the world thinks he is an honest man. Then circumstances make black white."
"You are talking of something besides the subject before us. Let us come back to it."
"No; I am talking about the subject before us."
"You confess that you robbed your uncle's safe."
"I admit that I helped myself to certain things in it which I wanted. I am ready to admit it anywhere you choose to place me," I replied, easily and good-naturedly.