"There are exceptional circumstances in this case which call for merciful treatment."
"You mean...."
"I mean," said Stowell, speaking rapidly and in a vibrating voice, "that the girl had no bad motives such as usually inspire murder—no greed, no lust, no desire for revenge. In fact, she meant no harm to anybody. On the contrary it is conceivable that she meant good—good even to her child—to save it from a life of suffering in a world in which it would have no father, no family, and nobody to care for it but its shamed and outcast mother."
The Governor looked at Stowell for a moment and thought.
"He's ill, and he's trying to unload his conscience."
Then he said aloud,
"So you've come to ask me to...."
"I've come to ask you, Sir, to withdraw your objection to the recommendation to mercy, so that the death sentence may be commuted to imprisonment."
Again the Governor looked at Stowell's heated face and thought, "Yes, he'll ill, and doesn't see that I am fighting his own battle.
"Do it, Sir," said Stowell. "Do it, for God's sake, before it is too late, and there is such an outcry throughout the kingdom as will shake the very foundations of justice in the island."