I made no answer, and I tried not to look at him by fixing my eyes upon the sea.
"You have evidence enough, you know, and if you haven't there's Price—she has plenty. So, since you've given me the right to speak for you, dear, I'm going to speak to your father first"
I must have made some half-articulate response, for not understanding me he said:
"Oh, I know he'll be a hard nut to crack. He won't want to hear what I've got to say, but he has got to hear it. And after all you're his daughter, and if he has any bowels of compassion . . ."
Again I must have made some effort to speak, for he said:
"Yes, he's ill, but he has only to set Curphy to work and the lawyer will do the rest."
I could not allow him to go any further, so I blurted out somehow that I had seen my father already.
"On this subject?"
"Yes."
"And what did he say?"