MEN I HAVE PAINTED
of his argument left the court quivering with emotion—and fatigue! I knew by the expressions on the faces of the judges, the presiding one of the three being the judge who had decided against us in the first instance, that the brilliant display of sound reasoning had been of no avail, and that the verdict would be a confirmation of that of the court below. The court sat, if I am not in error, in the old historic State House; and on leaving it we walked silently across Independence Square. Counsel for the defendants had been, to my mind, too leniently dealt with. Court etiquette had been punctiliously observed and the bona fides of the opposing attorney tacitly accepted, whereas his evidence, had it been sufficiently sifted, might have caused a change of view on the part of two of the judges. Thoughtlessly, with my mind centred upon the point, I impulsively broke the silence by saying, "I wish I could have conducted the case myself." Porter was profoundly hurt, never more so perhaps in his legal career: but I have always felt that he knew the words I had uttered implied nothing more than a censure on exaggerated professional etiquette which, among doctors and lawyers, must be obeyed, though a man bleed to death, or be hung innocently in consequence. The friendship that had sprung up between us as a result of our long consultations upon the various points of the case was proof against a blow even so severe as that which I had inadvertently given and of which he felt only the glancing force. I aimed at a bad custom. Porter's conduct of the case had been perfect, every argument for and against had been sifted and examined with the minutest circumspection: but custom drew a veil over the only vulnerable point in the defendant's armour.
And then I painted his portrait, which hurt him and
210
