A. E. W. Mason

“ Robert Pettifer hurriedly turned towards the table in the far corner of the room where the tray with the decanters and the syphons had been placed.
"Margaret, I pass my life in a scream at the injustice of the world," said Harold Hazlewood, and Robert Pettifer chuckled as he cut off the end of a cigar. "It is strange that an act of reparation should move you in the same way."
"Reparation!" cried Margaret Pettifer indignantly. Then she noticed that the window was open. She looked around the room. She drew up a chair in front of her brother. ”

“ CHAPTER XVII TROUBLE FOR MR. HAZLEWOOD When Dick and Stella walked along the drive to the lane Harold Hazlewood, who was radiant at the success of his dinner-party, turned to Robert Pettifer in the hall.
"Have a whisky-and-soda, Robert, before you go," he said. He led the way back into the library. Behind him walked the Pettifers, Robert ill-at-ease and wishing himself a hundred miles away, Margaret Pettifer boiling for battle. Hazlewood himself dropped into an arm-chair.
"I am very glad that you came to-night, Margaret," he said boldly. "You have seen for yourself." ”

“ Pettifer looked at him eagerly. She drew clear at once of the dispute. She left the questions now to Harold Hazlewood, and Pettifer had spoken with so much hesitation that Harold Hazlewood could not but ask them.
"You are making reservations, Robert?"
Pettifer shrugged his shoulders.
"I think we have a right to know them," Hazlewood insisted. "You are a solicitor with a great business and consequently a wide experience."
"Not of criminal cases, Hazlewood. I bring no more authority to judge them than any other man." ”