"But see if you
can understand: my conscience is not very fine-spun;
still, I have one. Now, there are degrees of foul
play, to some of which I have no particular objection.
I am sure with Mr. Carthew, I am not at all the person
to forgo an advantage, and I have much curiosity. But,
on the other hand, I have no taste for persecution; and
I ask you to believe that I am not the man to make bad
worse, or heap trouble on the unfortunate."
"Yes; I think I understand," said he. "Suppose I pass
you my word that, whatever may have occurred, there
were excuses--great excuses--I may say, very great?"
"It would have weight with me, doctor," I replied.
"I may go further," he pursued. "Suppose I had been
there, or you had been there. After a certain event
had taken place, it's a grave question what we might
have done--it's even a question what we could have
done--ourselves. Or take me. I will be plain with
you, and own that I am in possession of the facts. You
have a shrewd guess how I have acted in that knowledge.
May I ask you to judge from the character of my action
something of the nature of that knowledge, which I have
no call, nor yet no title, to share with you?"
I cannot convey a sense of the rugged conviction and
judicial emphasis of Dr.
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