'I wonder.'
'What on earth do you mean?'
Dick shrugged his shoulders.
'But he can't be guilty,' cried Mrs. Crowley. 'It's impossible.'
Dick made an effort to drive away from his mind the dreadful fears that filled it.
'Yes, that's what I feel, too,' he said. 'With all his faults Fred Allerton can't have committed such a despicable crime. You've never met him, you don't know him; but I've known him intimately for twenty years. He couldn't have swindled that wretched woman out of every penny she had, knowing that it meant starvation to her. He couldn't have been so brutally cruel.'
'Oh, I'm so glad to hear you say that'
Silence fell upon them for a while, and they waited. From the balcony they heard George talking rapidly, but they could not distinguish his words.
'I felt ashamed to stay in court and watch the torture of that unhappy man. I've dined with him times out of number; I've stayed at his house; I've ridden his horses. Oh, it was too awful.'
He got up impatiently and walked up and down the room.