“I—I didn’t mean that,” she faltered. “All I meant was that I didn’t see how you could think anything else when we are all so sure of it.”
“Allow me to say that I credit you with the sincerity you refuse to recognise in me. Your brother has a strong prejudice—there is no other word for it—against Bahram Khan, which he has transmitted to you, and you look at the facts in the light of that prejudice. I was perfectly willing to be convinced of the young man’s guilt by the merest shred of anything that could be called evidence, but none was produced. The case against him broke down completely. Would you have me withdraw my countenance from a man whom I conscientiously believe to be innocent, and ruin all his prospects, simply on the score of an unf— unsupported opinion of yours? No, Miss North, I won’t believe it of you. You must perceive that I am right.”
“But you said our intuitions were wonderfully correct, and that your judgment was incomplete by itself,” urged Mabel.
“To be of any real value, the feminine intuition must be confirmed by the masculine judgment. Its use is purely supplementary.”
“Oh, Mr Burgrave, you can’t really mean that! Why, my brother would never dream of doing anything without consulting his wife. He thinks most highly of her judgment.”
“Surely Major North is the best judge of his own affairs?” suggested Mr Burgrave dryly. “If he has confidence in his wife’s judgment, it is only natural he should wish to avail himself of it. Such would not be my case, I confess, but then, the confidence would be wanting.”
“But, according to you, I ought to model my opinions on some one’s,” said Mabel—“Dick’s, I suppose—and that’s just what you have been scolding me for doing.”
“Dick’s?” said the Commissioner reflectively. “No, not Dick’s, I think. That was not at all what I had in my mind, Miss North. And have I been scolding you, or is that another mistaken intuition? You know how gladly I would have accepted your view of Bahram Khan’s guilt, if that had been possible?”
“I know you said so, and I hoped so much——” Mabel’s eyes were full of tears.
“And do you know why that was?”