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The girl remained for half an hour longer, and when she left she went directly to
the home of Elizabeth Compton.
"I told you, Elizabeth," she said, "that I was going to see Mr. Torrance. You
dissuaded me for some time, but I finally went today, and I am glad that I went.
No one except yourself could have loved your father more than I, or have been
more horrified or grieved at his death; but that is no reason why you should aid
in the punishment of an innocent man, as I am confident that this man Torrance
is, and I tell you Elizabeth if you were not prejudiced you would agree with me.
"I have talked with Torrance for over half an hour to-day, and since then nothing
can ever make me believe that that man could commit a cold-blooded murder.
Harold has always hated him--you admit that yourself--and now you are
permitting him to prejudice you against the man purely on the strength of that
dislike. I am going to help him. I'm going to do it, not only to obtain justice for
him, but to assist in detecting and punishing the true murderer."
"
I don't see, Harriet, how you can take any interest in such a creature," said
Elizabeth. "You know from the circumstances under which we saw him before
father employed him what type of man he is, and it was further exemplified by the
evidence of his relationship with that common woman of the streets."
"He told me about her to-day," replied Harriet. "He had only known her very
casually, but she helped him once--loaned him some money when he needed it---
and when he found that she had been a stenographer and wanted to give up the
life she had been leading and be straight again, he helped her.
"I asked Sergeant O'Donnell particularly about that, and even he had to admit
that there was no evidence whatever to implicate the girl or show that the
relations between her and Mr. Torrance had been anything that was not right;
and you know yourself how anxious O'Donnell has been to dig up evidence of any
kind derogatory to either of them."
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