"Come, sister, come," said Richard a little more gaily, "you will be fair with me at all events. If I have the misfortune to be under that influence, so has he. If it has a little twisted me, it may have a little twisted him too. I don't say that he is not an honourable man, out of all this complication and uncertainty; I am sure he is. But it taints everybody. You know it taints everybody. You have heard him say so fifty times. Then why should HE escape?"
"Because," said I, "his is an uncommon character, and he has resolutely kept himself outside the circle, Richard."

"Come, sister, come," said Richard a little more gaily, "be fair. If I have the misfortune to be under that influence, so has he. If it has a little twisted me, it may have a little twisted him too. I don't say that he is not an honourable man; I am sure he is. But this case taints everybody. You have heard him say so fifty times. Then why should he escape?"
"Because," said I, "his is an uncommon character, and he has resolutely kept himself outside the circle, Richard."
