"
"Have you read the testimony yourself, Selma?"
"No, Pauline."
"Or your husband?"
"My husband is satisfied from what others have told him, just as I am,
that this poor American woman is languishing in prison as the result of
a cruel miscarriage of justice, and that she never committed the crime
of which she has been found guilty. My husband has had considerable
legal experience."
Pauline's questions were nettling, and Selma intended by her response to
suggest the presumptuousness of her sister-in-law's doubts in the face
of competent authority.
"I realize that your husband ought to understand about such matters, but
may one suppose that the English authorities would deliberately allow an
innocent woman to remain in prison? They must know that the friends of
Mrs. Hamilton believe her innocent. Why should we on this side of the
water meddle simply because she was born an American?"
"Why?" Selma drew herself up proudly. "In the first place I believe--we
believe--that the English are capable of keeping her in prison on a
technicality merely because she is there already. They are worshippers
of legal form and red tape, my husband says. And as to meddling, why is
it not our duty as an earnest and Christian people to remonstrate
against the continued incarceration of a woman born under our flag and
accustomed to American ideas of justice? Meddling? In my opinion, we
should be cowards and derelict in our duty if we did not protest.
Pages:
448
449
450
451
452
453
454
455
456
457
458
459
460
461
462
463
464
465
466
467
468
469
470
471
472