`` That was a terrible thing to do '', I said to Oso.

`` But that was war '', I said.

Still, I was disgusted with myself for agreeing with Montero's methods.

In the brief moment I had to talk to them before I took my post on the ring of defenses, I indicated I was sickened by the methods men employed to live and trade on the river.

Next to him was a young boy I was sure had sat near me at one of the trading sessions.

Now under me I could see him for what he really was, a boy dressed up in streaks of paint.

Such was my state of mind that I did not question the possibility of this ; ;

under the circumstances I was only too willing to confess all.

I was nearly thirty at the time.

It was dark and, I sensed, very large ; ;

Sometimes I was aware of people moving about in the darkness.

This impressed me, until I realized how limited was his sphere of influence.

I felt certain he was really a spineless little man.

Once, pressing him, I learned that his job was only part-time, in the afternoons when nothing went on in the hall.

In the mornings, I was informed, fluorescent tubes, similar to the one above the counter, illuminated the entire hall.

I was shown, instead, a batch of white tickets of the sort handed out, he told me, every morning.

Now, here was something of obvious importance to me, yet when I reached for the tickets he snatched them away from my hand.

It was, I felt, possible that they were men who, having received no tickets for that day, had remained in the hall, to sleep perhaps, in the corners farthest removed from the counter with its overhead light.

I felt certain it was self-appointed.

I decided to see no more of the clerk until the processing of my papers was completed.

I was constantly searching for clues around the neighborhood of the hall.

If to be innocent is to be helpless, then I had been -- as are we all -- helpless at the start.

But the time came when I was no longer innocent and therefore no longer helpless.

However, I confess my hope that I will be innocent again, not with a pristine, accidental innocence, but rather with an innocence achieved by the slow cutting away of the flesh to reach the bone.

You, I could swear to it, remained innocent in this sense until the end.

Captain, I am innocent of any plot against you or the ship ''.

Before God I swear I am innocent.

`` I cannot speak for others, sir, but I am innocent ''.

`` I tell you he is innocent ''.

`` I am innocent, Captain '', Cromwell said again.

`` Before God, Captain, I am innocent ''.

Johnnie and I had been innocent in our love, and that was the way I wanted to keep it.

I looked closely at his eyes, and he was already innocent ; ;

On 29 May 2007 it was reported that General Sir Mike Jackson, second-in-command of 1 Para on Bloody Sunday, said: " I have no doubt that innocent people were shot ".

Munch was pleased with the " great commotion ", and wrote in a letter: " Never have I had such an amusing time — it's incredible that something as innocent as painting should have created such a stir.

I realised that I had no ' innocent ' sources of evidence-facts.

No sooner would I turn my head away from the counter before he would address me, at times quite sharply, in order to bring back my attention.

I could consult this personage on any weekday morning, though not before ten o'clock.

The clerk impressed this upon me: that I should not arrive in the hall before ten o'clock.

I've got to take Danny away from Clayton before I lose him altogether.

`` So help me, Crouch, I'd like to kill you where you stand, but, before I do, I'm going to hear you admit killing him.

There had been a good second or two during which my muffler had been blowing out, and now I was certain I'd seen her somewhere before.

The keys were still in it, and I was miles away before I remembered that my clothes and purse and everything were still in the little cabana where I'd changed ''.

It'll probably be at least an hour or two before I can check back with you.

Shortly before nine I drove my jalopy to the street facing the Lake and parked the car in shadows far enough away from the rendezvous corner but near enough to keep the corner in clear view.

In the bedroom before the husband and wife find their way to the bed, the lights go on: `` In dull domestic radiance I watch her staring face, still blind, Start wincing in obedience To dirty waters, counters, pots and pans, Waiting below stairs, in her mind ''.

I came up maybe fifty feet before I knew what was happening ''.

They saw it before I did, even with my binoculars.

My curiosity was sharpened a day or two before the interview by a conversation I had with a well-informed teacher of literature, a Jesuit father, at a conference on religious drama near Paris.

But before I try to diagnose it, I would offer other evidence.

You probably would not remember, since you never seemed to remember even the same moments as I, much less their intensity, one sunny midday on Fifth Avenue when you had set out with me for some final shopping less than a week before the wedding you staged for me with such reluctance at the Farm.

To you, for instance, the word innocence, in this connotation, probably retained its Biblical, or should I say technical sense, and therefore I suppose I must make myself quite clear by saying that I lost -- or rather handed over -- what you would have considered to be my innocence two weeks before I was legally entitled, and in fact by oath required, to hand it over along with what other goods and bads I had.