The Case of the Drowning Duck

Начало книги

Once when Della Street, Perry Mason’s private secretary, had asked him what was the most valuable attribute a lawyer could have, Mason had answered, “That peculiar something which makes people want to confide in you.”

Certainly Mason possessed this power to a marked degree. When he walked across a room, people instinctively followed him with their eyes. When he seated himself in a hotel lobby or on a train, persons who were seated next to him almost invariably started a casual conversation and wound up baring their innermost secrets.

As Mason himself had once said, a lawyer either has this quality or he hasn’t. If he has it, it’s as much of a natural gift as having a good ear for music. If he doesn’t have it, he shouldn’t practice law.

Della Street insisted that it was merely the instinctive reaction which people gave to one who could comprehend human frailties, and extend sympathetic understanding.

Читать дальше →