I simply leave the confession on one side,
and offer you corroborative evidence of a quite unmistakable
description. Here's a copy of a Dublin paper. I put it in my pocket
on purpose to show it to you. I suppose you'll believe what you see
printed in a newspaper?"
"It depends very much what it is. I don't believe everything I see in
papers."
"That, if you'll excuse my saying so, seems to me to be carrying your
habit of scepticism to the verge of actual mania. I don't think you
ought to adopt that kind of attitude, Major. If you had been trained
in theology, or even secular metaphysics, it might be excusable; though
then, of course, you wouldn't do it. But in a simple and almost
entirely uneducated country gentleman like you, it's simply grotesque."
"Go on about the newspaper, J. J."
"Here it is for you; but I don't see that it's much use giving it to
you if your mind is made up beforehand to disbelieve every word that's
in it."
He took a newspaper from his pocket and handed it to Major Kent,
indicating with his thumb a column on the middle page.
"The Lorimer Case. Judge's Charge to the Jury. Acquittal.
"Scene outside the Court.
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