k,--till at last I fairly gave in from sheer vexation. So
the--gentleman--got my money, and I added something to my stock of
experience. Of course, that's only my story, and it may be that the
gentleman could tell it another way. But I say that if my story be
right the doctrine of _Caveat emptor_ does not encourage trade. I
don't know how we got to all this from Mr. Finn. I'm to see him
to-morrow."

"Yes;--he is very anxious to speak to you."

"What's the use of it, Wickerby? I hate seeing a client.--What comes
of it?"

"Of course he wants to tell his own story."

"But I don't want to hear his own story. What good will his own story
do me? He'll tell me either one of two things. He'll swear he didn't
murder the man--"

"That's what he'll say."

"Which can have no effect upon me one way or the other; or else he'll
say that he did,--which would cripple me altogether."

"He won't say that, Mr. Chaffanbrass."

"There's no knowing what they'll say. A man will go on swearing by
his God that he is innocent, till at last, in a moment of emotion, he
breaks down, and out comes the truth. In such a case as this I do not
in the least want to know the truth about the murder."

"That is what the public wants to know."

"Because the public is ignorant. The public should not wish to know
anything of the kind. What we should all wish to get at is the truth
of the evidence about the murder. The man is to be hung not because
he committed the murder,--as to which no positive knowledge is
attainable; but because he has been proved to have committed the
murder,--as to which proof, though it be enough for hanging, there
must always be attached some shadow of doubt. We were delighted to
hang Palmer,--but we don't know that he killed Cook. A learned man
who knew more about it than we can know seemed to think that he
didn't. Now the last man to give us any useful insight into the
evidence is the prisoner himself. In nineteen cases out of twenty a
man tried for murder in this country committed the murder for which
he is tried."

"There really seems to be a doubt in this case."

"I dare say. If there be only nineteen guilty out of twenty, there
must be one innocent; and why not Mr. Phineas Finn? But, if it be so,
he, burning with the sense of injustice, thinks that everybody should
see it as he sees it. He is to be tried, because, on investigation,
everybody sees it just in a different light. In such case he is
unfortunate, but he