I have a profound detestation of all sentimentality and affected morals.

It is a relief to me to come into contact with a man who is free from that bourgeois incubus to modern enterprise--a conscience." "Is that your estimate of me ?" Francis asked.
"Why not?
You practise your profession in the criminal courts, do you not ?" "That is well-known," was the brief reply.
"What measure of conscience can a man have," Oliver Hilditch argued blandly, "who pleads for the innocent and guilty alike with the same simulated fervour?
Confess, now, Mr.Ledsam--there is no object in being hypocritical in this matter--have you not often pleaded for the guilty as though you believed them innocent ?" "That has sometimes been my duty," Francis acknowledged.
Hilditch laughed scornfully.
"It is all part of the great hypocrisy of society," he proclaimed.
"You have an extra glass of champagne for dinner at night and are congratulated by your friends because you have helped some poor devil to cheat the law, while all the time you know perfectly well, and so do your high-minded friends, that your whole attitude during those two hours of eloquence has been a lie.

That is what first attracted me to you, Mr.Ledsam." "I am sorry to hear it," Francis commented coldly.

"The ethics of my profession--" His host stopped him with a little wave of the hand.
"Spare me that," he begged.

"While we are on the subject, though, I have a question to ask you.