"Quite so," he said, with deeper irony. "That is essentially a feminine
reason. Of course, your idea of a forger is the theatrical one; the
gentleman with a Mephistophelian face, a sardonic sneer, evening dress,
with a big cloak, and a cigarette in the corner of his mouth; the
villain who looks every inch the part and says 'Curse you!' whenever it
is possible to do so. My dear young lady, your ignorance of the world
spoils your compliment. The worst man, the biggest criminal I ever saw
in the dock, looked as innocent as a baby."
"All the same, I don't believe you," Celia declared, doggedly.
"I am sorry to say the court is not with you," he said, with a smile
that did not hide his bitterness. "The cheque was cashed by the
prisoner--myself, my lord.--You see, I accept you as judge.--When he was
asked to give an account of it, he refused to do so; I am speaking in
the past tense, but I am merely forecasting the course of the trial. A
man who cashes a forged cheque and declines to say where he got it, how
it came into his possession, is quickly disposed of by a British jury,
than which there is no body of men more acute and intelligent."
"Why do you refuse to tell the truth and clear yourself?" asked Celia,
in a low voice, her lips parted now, with a perplexity, a vivid
interest.
He rose, strode up and down the room for a moment or two, then came back
to the table, and, with his hands pressing hard on it, looked down at
her upturned, anxious face.
"Your belief, your persistent, unreasoning belief in me, upsets me," he
said, with a smile, and evidently still making an effort to retain his
assumption of cynical indifference and levity. "I am strongly tempted by
it to tell you 'my story,' as the bores on the stage say; but I can't.
However, I will admit that you are right. I did not forge the accursed
thing--I beg your pardon! No, I didn't sign the cheque; but the case, so
far as I am concerned, is just as black as if I were guilty. Hold on a
minute! I know what you are going to say; that I am sacrificing
myself----"
"You have no right to do so," Celia broke in, in a voice that trembled,
not only with pity, but with indignation. "Oh, don't you see! I am only
a girl, and I know so little of the world; but I know, I am as sure as I
am that--that I am standing here, you have no right, no one has any
right, to make such a sacrifice, and certainly no one would be justified
in accepting it." She pushed the hair from her forehead with a gesture
of impatience. "Oh, you must be mad! You--you look so clever, you take
it all so calmly; you are not excited, bewildered--don't you see
yourself that, in consenting to ruin yourself, to go to--to prison, an
innocent man----? Oh, you have not realized----"