"Of course. And if, after I have talked with her, I can elicit no facts to warrant her being put on trial for her life, I shall not give her her liberty until I have consulted both families, laying all my evidence before them. They will be loth to begin a prosecution which they can not sustain, even if they have an _impression_ of guilt. By the way, Redfield, these _impressions_ are curious things! Supposing I should tell you there are persons who, without one particle of proof of any kind, have an impression that _you_ are the guilty man." I arose from the sofa, looking at him, not knowing whether or not to knock him down. "Don't 'slay me with a look'," he said, laughing quietly. "I don't say that _I_ have any such inner revelation. And I did not say this, either, to hurt your feelings. I did it to save them. For, if I mistake not, the same person who confided his impressions to me, has recently been gradually confiding them to others. The very thought, the very possibility, once entertained, or half-entertained and driven away again, as an unwelcome guest, still has its injurious influence. You are standing upon an earthquake, Richard--you may be swallowed up any instant." "I?" "Yes. I have detected the premonitory rumblings. I have said this only to warn you, that you may be ready for self-defense." "I scorn to defend myself! Defend myself, forsooth! against what? Who has dared to insinuate that thought against me which you have allowed yourself to echo? But I need not ask--it is my natural foe, James Argyll. He hates me as the rattlesnake hates the black-ash tree!" "Well, the dislike is mutual. Will you deny that you, too, have had a thought--mind, I say a mere, floating thought--that _he_ may have instigated the deed?" My conscious eye sunk before the steel-blue glance which pierced me. God knows, such a fear, such a belief, at times vague and shadowy, again vivid but brief as lightning, had again and again troubled me. I have hinted at it once, when I said that I was glad that if James ever took money, unpermitted, from his uncle, he took it to waste at the gaming-table. Soon I raised my eyes. "If I have had such a suspicion, I have struggled against it; I have never breathed it into mortal ear. He has sought to injure me in various ways; I have wished to win and conciliate him; to be friendly with him, for the sake of my regard for his relatives. As to taking a step to fix a blasting stigma upon him, without giving him a chance openly to efface it, I am incapable of it. You are at liberty to judge between us, Mr. Burton."