Then she added: "He's the father of the girl you don't like, isn't he ?" "Yes, he's the--" A cloud came over the financier's face; his eyes darkened, his jaws snapped and he clenched his fist.
"How you must hate him!" said Shirley, who observed the change.
"Not at all," replied Ryder recovering his self-possession and suavity of manner.

"I disagree with his politics and his methods, but--I know very little about him except that he is about to be removed from office." "About to be ?" echoed Shirley.

"So his fate is decided even before he is tried ?" The girl laughed bitterly.

"Yes," she went on, "some of the newspapers are beginning to think he is innocent of the things of which he is accused." "Do they ?" said Ryder indifferently.
"Yes," she persisted, "most people are on his side." She planted her elbows on the desk in front of her, and looking him squarely in the face, she asked him point blank: "Whose side are you on--really and truly ?" Ryder winced.

What right had this woman, a stranger both to Judge Rossmore and himself, to come here and catechise him?
He restrained his impatience with difficulty as he replied: "Whose side am I on?
Oh, I don't know that I am on any side.