-eyes that had dazzled half London, but Field only looked down into
them as he might have regarded one of his legal documents. A slight,
peculiar smile just touched his lips as he made reply.

"I have no objection to telling you, Lady Violet. He is guilty. That is
why."

"Ah!" It was a sound like the snapped string of an instrument. Her
fingers gripped each other. "So you think that too! Indeed--indeed, you
are wrong! But--is that your only reason?"

"Isn't it a sufficient one?" he said.

Her fingers writhed and strained against each other. "Do you mean that it
is--against your principles?" she said.

"To defend a guilty man?" questioned the barrister slowly.

She nodded two or three times as if for the moment utterance were beyond
her.

Field's eyes had not stirred from her face, yet still they had that legal
look as if he searched for some hidden information.

"No," he said finally. "It is not entirely a matter of principle. As you
are aware, I have achieved a certain reputation. And I value it."

She made a quick movement that was almost convulsive.

"But you would not injure your reputation. You would only enhance it,"
she said, speaking very rapidly as if some obstruction to speech had very
suddenly been removed. "You are practically on the top of the wave. You
would succeed where another man would fail. And indeed--oh, indeed he is
innocent! He must be innocent! Things look black against him. But he can
be saved somehow. And you could save him--if you would. Think what the
awful disgrace would mean to him--if he were convicted! And he doesn't
deserve it. I assure you he doesn't deserve it. Ah, how shall I persuade
you of that?" Her voice quivered upon a note of despair. "Surely you are
human! There must be some means of moving you. You can't want to see an
innocent man go under!"

The beautiful eyes were blurred with tears as she looked at him. She
caught back a piteous sob. The cloak had fallen from about her shoulders.
They gleamed with an exquisite whiteness.

The man's look still rested upon her with unflickering directness. Again
that peculiar smile hovered about his grim mouth.

"Yes, I am human," he said, after a pause. "I do not esteem myself as
above temptation. As you probably know, I am a self-made man, of very
ordinary extraction. But--I do not feel tempted to take up Burleigh
Wentworth's defence. I am sorry if that fact should cause you any
disappointment. I do not see why it should. Th