"I defended him below," he returned, "because it was my duty to defend him. I had never seen any other side of the case then; but now I know I was wrong. He's guilty, deliberately guilty, wofully guilty...."
"Eliot, must I remind you that you are speaking of my father! Have I no right, no influence, no claim upon you?" she rattled on breathlessly.
"Yes, you have a claim upon me," he said, eyeing her sternly. "Your influence is of the best, Leslie, and it is your right, your duty to claim, to demand of me that I shall do my duty in this as in all things. If I were false in this, I would be false to you."
But Leslie could not see things in his light, bent as she was on obtaining her father's pardon.
"You pardoned Giles Ilingsworth?" she went on; "and now you won't...."
"Yes, I pardoned Giles Ilingsworth," he admitted.
"A murderer!" she blazed forth.
"I pardoned him because he was innocent," he insisted.
"And you can't pardon my father?"