“That establishes one fact very clearly, doesn't it? You all admit that with a different sort of a face and manner, Mr. Hildebrand might be as guilty as sin. Well, that point being settled, let me ask you another question. If Miss Alexandra Hildebrand, the granddaughter who has faced us for six working days, were a sour-visaged, watery-eyed damsel of uncertain age and devoid of what is commonly called sex-appeal, would your sympathies still be as happily placed as they are at present?” No man responded. Each one seemed willing to allow his neighbour to answer this perfectly unanswerable question. “You do not answer,” went on Sampson, “so I will put it in another form. Suppose that Miss Alexandra Hildebrand had not been there at all; suppose that she had not been where we could look at her for six short consecutive days--and consequently think of her for six long consecutive nights--or where she couldn't possibly have looked at us out of eyes that revealed the most holy trust in us--well, what then? I confess that Miss Hildebrand exercised a tremendous influence over me. Did she have the same effect upon you?” Several of them cleared their throats, and then of one accord, as if moved by a single magnetic impulse, all of them said, in a loud, almost combative tone, “No!” The chubby bachelor qualified his negative. “She didn't have an undue influence, Mr. Sampson. Of course, I liked to look at her. She's easy to look at, you know.” He blushed as his eyes swept the group with what he intended to be defiance but was in reality embarrassment. No. 7: “I was awfully sorry for her. I guess everybody was.” No. 9; “She's devoted to the old man. I like that in her. I tell you there's nothing finer than a young girl showing love and respect for--” No. 12: “She's a square little scout. Take it from me, gents, she wasn't thinking of me as a juror when she happened to turn her lamps on me. I'm an old hand at the game. I can tell you a lot about women that you wouldn't guess in--” Sampson: “We may, therefore, eliminate Miss Hildebrand as the pernicious force in our deliberations. She has nothing to do with our sense of justice. We would be voting, I take it, just as we have been all along if there were no such person as she. However, it occurs to me that each of you gentlemen may have had the same impression that I had during the trial. I had a feeling that Miss Hildebrand was depending on me to a tremendous extent. You may be sure that I do not charge her with duplicity--God knows I have the sincerest admiration for her--but I found it pretty difficult to meet her honest, serene, trustful eyes without experiencing a decided opinion that it was my bounden duty to acquit her grandfather. Anybody else feel that way about it?” There was a long silence. Again each man seemed to be waiting for the other to break it. It was the foreman who spoke.