Part 3 (1/2)

”Nowadays,” he shot out, ”we don't call them courts of justice: we call them courts of law.”

Gilder yielded only a rather dubious smile over the quip. This much he felt that he could afford, since those same courts served his personal purposes well in deed.

”Anyway,” he declared, becoming genial again, ”it's out of our hands.

There's nothing we can do, now.”

”Why, as to that,” the lawyer replied, with a hint of hesitation, ”I am not so sure. You see, the fact of the matter is that, though I helped to prosecute the case, I am not a little bit proud of the verdict.”

Gilder raised his eyebrows in unfeigned astonishment. Even yet, he was quite without appreciation of the attorney's feeling in reference to the conduct of the case.

”Why?” he questioned, sharply.

”Because,” the lawyer said, again halting directly before the desk, ”in spite of all the evidence against her, I am not sure that Mary Turner is guilty--far from it, in fact!”

Gilder uttered an e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.i.o.n of contempt, but Demarest went on resolutely.

”Anyhow,” he explained, ”the girl wants to see you, and I wish to urge you to grant her an interview.”

Gilder flared at this suggestion, and scowled wrathfully on the lawyer, who, perhaps with professional prudence, had turned away in his rapid pacing of the room.

”What's the use?” Gilder stormed. A latent hardness revealed itself at the prospect of such a visitation. And along with this hardness came another singular revelation of the nature of the man. For there was consternation in his voice, as he continued in vehement expostulation against the idea. If there was harshness in his att.i.tude there was, too, a fugitive suggestion of tenderness alarmed over the prospect of undergoing such an interview with a woman.

”I can't have her crying all over the office and begging for mercy,” he protested, truculently. But a note of fear lay under the petulance.

Demarest's answer was given with a.s.surance,

”You are mistaken about that. The girl doesn't beg for mercy. In fact, that's the whole point of the matter. She demands justice--strange as that may seem, in a court of law!--and nothing else. The truth is, she's a very unusual girl, a long way beyond the ordinary sales-girl, both in brains and in education.”

”The less reason, then, for her being a thief,” Gilder grumbled in his heaviest voice.

”And perhaps the less reason for believing her to be a thief,” the lawyer retorted, suavely. He paused for a moment, then went on. There was a tone of sincere determination in his voice. ”Just before the judge imposed sentence, he asked her if she had anything to say. You know, it's just a usual form--a thing that rarely means much of anything.

But this case was different, let me tell you. She surprised us all by answering at once that she had. It's really a pity, Gilder, that you didn't wait. Why, that poor girl made a--d.a.m.n--fine speech!”

The lawyer's forensic aspirations showed in his honest appreciation of the effectiveness of such oratory from the heart as he had heard in the courtroom that day.

”Pooh! pooh!” came the querulous objection. ”She seems to have hypnotized you.” Then, as a new thought came to the magnate, he spoke with a trace of anxiety. There were always the reporters, looking for s.p.a.ce to fill with foolish vaporings.

”Did she say anything against me, or the store?”

”Not a word,” the lawyer replied, gravely. His smile of appreciation was discreetly secret. ”She merely told us how her father died when she was sixteen years old. She was compelled after that to earn her own living.

Then she told how she had worked for you for five years steadily, without there ever being a single thing against her. She said, too, that she had never seen the things found in her locker. And she said more than that! She asked the judge if he himself understood what it means for a girl to be sentenced to prison for something she hadn't done.

Somehow, Gilder, the way she talked had its effect on everybody in the courtroom. I know! It's my business to understand things like that. And what she said rang true. What she said, and the way she said it, take brains and courage. The ordinary crook has neither. So, I had a suspicion that she might be speaking the truth. You see, Gilder, it all rang true! And it's my business to know how things ring in that way.” There was a little pause, while the lawyer moved back and forth nervously. Then, he added: ”I believe Lawlor would have suspended sentence if it hadn't been for your talk with him.”

There were not wanting signs that Gilder was impressed. But the gentler fibers of the man were atrophied by the habits of a lifetime. What heart he had once possessed had been buried in the grave of his young wife, to be resurrected only for his son. In most things, he was consistently a hard man. Since he had no imagination, he could have no real sympathy.

He whirled about in his swivel chair, and blew a cloud of smoke from his mouth. When he spoke, his voice was deeply resonant.

”I simply did my duty,” he said. ”You are aware that I did not seek any consultation with Judge Lawlor. He sent for me, and asked me what I thought about the case--whether I thought it would be right to let the girl go on a suspended sentence. I told him frankly that I believed that an example should be made of her, for the sake of others who might be tempted to steal. Property has some rights, Demarest, although it seems to be getting nowadays so that anybody is likely to deny it.” Then the fretful, half-alarmed note sounded in his voice again, as he continued: ”I can't understand why the girl wants to see me.”