Within the Law
by
Marvin Dana

Part 1 out of 6








This etext was prepared by Charles Keller.





WITHIN THE LAW
BY
MARVIN DANA

FROM THE PLAY OF
BAYARD VEILLER



CONTENTS.

CHAPTER
I. The Panel of Light
II. A Cheerful Prodigal
III. Only Three Years
IV. Kisses and Kleptomania
V. The Victim of the Law
VI. Inferno
VII. Within the Law
VIII. A Tip from Headquarters
X. A Legal Document
X. Marked Money
XI. The Thief
XII. A Bridegroom Spurned
XIII. The Advent of Griggs
XIV. A Wedding Announcement
XV. Aftermath of Tragedy
XVI. Burke Plots
XVII. Outside the Law
XVIII. The Noiseless Death
XIX. Within the Toils
XX. Who Shot Griggs?
XXI. Aggie at Bay
XXII. The Trap That Failed
XXIII. The Confession
XXIV. Anguish and Bliss



CHAPTER I. THE PANEL OF LIGHT

The lids of the girl's eyes lifted slowly, and she stared at the
panel of light in the wall. Just at the outset, the act of
seeing made not the least impression on her numbed brain. For a
long time she continued to regard the dim illumination in the
wall with the same passive fixity of gaze. Apathy still lay upon
her crushed spirit. In a vague way, she realized her own
inertness, and rested in it gratefully, subtly fearful lest she
again arouse to the full horror of her plight. In a curious
subconscious fashion, she was striving to hold on to this
deadness of sensation, thus to win a little respite from the
torture that had exhausted her soul.

Of a sudden, her eyes noted the black lines that lay across the
panel of light. And, in that instant, her spirit was quickened
once again. The clouds lifted from her brain. Vision was clear
now. Understanding seized the full import of this hideous thing
on which she looked.... For the panel of light was a window, set
high within a wall of stone. The rigid lines of black that
crossed it were bars--prison bars. It was still true, then: She
was in a cell of the Tombs.

The girl, crouching miserably on the narrow bed, maintained her
fixed watching of the window--that window which was a symbol of
her utter despair. Again, agony wrenched within her. She did
not weep: long ago she had exhausted the relief of tears. She
did not pace to and fro in the comfort of physical movement with
which the caged beast finds a mocking imitation of liberty: long
ago, her physical vigors had been drained under stress of
anguish. Now, she was well-nigh incapable of any bodily
activity. There came not even so much as the feeblest moan from
her lips. The torment was far too racking for such futile
fashion of lamentation. She merely sat there in a posture of
collapse. To all outward seeming, nerveless, emotionless, an
abject creature. Even the eyes, which held so fixedly their gaze
on the window, were quite expressionless. Over them lay a film,
like that which veils the eyes of some dead thing. Only an
occasional languid motion of the lids revealed the life that
remained.

So still the body. Within the soul, fury raged uncontrolled.
For all the desolate calm of outer seeming, the tragedy of her
fate was being acted with frightful vividness there in memory.
In that dreadful remembrance, her spirit was rent asunder anew by
realization of that which had become her portion.... It was then,
as once again the horrible injustice of her fate racked
consciousness with its tortures, that the seeds of revolt were
implanted in her heart. The thought of revenge gave to her the
first meager gleam of comfort that had lightened her moods
through many miserable days and nights. Those seeds of revolt
were to be nourished well, were to grow into their flower--a
poison flower, developed through the three years of convict life
to which the judge had sentenced her.

The girl was appalled by the mercilessness of a destiny that had
so outraged right. She was wholly innocent of having done any
wrong. She had struggled through years of privation to keep
herself clean and wholesome, worthy of those gentlefolk from whom
she drew her blood. And earnest effort had ended at last under
an overwhelming accusation--false, yet none the less fatal to
her. This accusation, after soul-wearying delays, had culminated
to-day in conviction. The sentence of the court had been imposed
upon her: that for three years she should be imprisoned.... This,
despite her innocence. She had endured much--miserably
much!--for honesty's sake. There wrought the irony of fate. She
had endured bravely for honesty's sake. And the end of it all
was shame unutterable. There was nought left her save a wild
dream of revenge against the world that had martyrized her.
"Vengeance is mine. I will repay, saith the Lord."... The
admonition could not touch her now. Why should she care for the
decrees of a God who had abandoned her!

There had been nothing in the life of Mary Turner, before the
catastrophe came, to distinguish it from many another. Its most
significant details were of a sordid kind, familiar to poverty.
Her father had been an unsuccessful man, as success is esteemed
by this generation of Mammon-worshipers. He was a gentleman, but
the trivial fact is of small avail to-day. He was of good birth,
and he was the possessor of an inherited competence. He had, as
well, intelligence, but it was not of a financial sort.

So, little by little, his fortune became shrunken toward
nothingness, by reason of injudicious investments. He married a
charming woman, who, after a brief period of wedded happiness,
gave her life to the birth of the single child of the union,
Mary. Afterward, in his distress over this loss, Ray Turner
seemed even more incompetent for the management of business
affairs. As the years passed, the daughter grew toward maturity
in an experience of ever-increasing penury. Nevertheless, there
was no actual want of the necessities of life, though always a
woful lack of its elegancies. The girl was in the high-school,
when her father finally gave over his rather feeble effort of
living. Between parent and child, the intimacy had been unusually
close. At his death, the father left her a character well
instructed in the excellent principles that had been his own.
That was his sole legacy to her. Of worldly goods, not the value
of a pin.

Yet, measured according to the stern standards of adversity, Mary
was fortunate. Almost at once, she procured a humble employment
in the Emporium, the great department store owned by Edward
Gilder. To be sure, the wage was infinitesimal, while the toil
was body-breaking soul-breaking. Still, the pittance could be
made to sustain life, and Mary was blessed with both soul and
body to sustain much. So she merged herself in the army of
workers--in the vast battalion of those that give their entire
selves to a labor most stern and unremitting, and most ill
rewarded.

Mary, nevertheless, avoided the worst perils of her lot. She did
not flinch under privation, but went her way through it, if not
serenely, at least without ever a thought of yielding to those
temptations that beset a girl who is at once poor and charming.
Fortunately for her, those in closest authority over her were not
so deeply smitten as to make obligatory on her a choice between
complaisance and loss of position. She knew of situations like
that, the cul-de-sac of chastity, worse than any devised by a
Javert. In the store, such things were matters of course. There
is little innocence for the girl in the modern city. There can
be none for the worker thrown into the storm-center of a great
commercial activity, humming with vicious gossip, all alive with
quips from the worldly wise. At the very outset of her
employment, the sixteen-year-old girl learned that she might eke
out the six dollars weekly by trading on her personal
attractiveness to those of the opposite sex. The idea was
repugnant to her; not only from the maidenly instinct of purity,
but also from the moral principles woven into her character by
the teachings of a father wise in most things, though a fool in
finance. Thus, she remained unsmirched, though well informed as
to the verities of life. She preferred purity and penury, rather
than a slight pampering of the body to be bought by its
degradation. Among her fellows were some like herself; others,
unlike. Of her own sort, in this single particular, were the two
girls with whom she shared a cheap room. Their common decency in
attitude toward the other sex was the unique bond of union. In
their association, she found no real companionship. Nevertheless,
they were wholesome enough. Otherwise they were illiterate,
altogether uncongenial.

In such wise, through five dreary years, Mary Turner lived. Nine
hours daily, she stood behind a counter. She spent her other
waking hours in obligatory menial labors: cooking her own scant
meals over the gas; washing and ironing, for the sake of that
neat appearance which was required of her by those in authority
at the Emporium--yet, more especially, necessary for her own
self-respect. With a mind keen and earnest, she contrived some
solace from reading and studying, since the free library gave her
this opportunity. So, though engaged in stultifying occupation
through most of her hours, she was able to find food for mental
growth. Even, in the last year, she had reached a point of
development whereat she began to study seriously her own position
in the world's economy, to meditate on a method of bettering it.
Under this impulse, hope mounted high in her heart. Ambition was
born. By candid comparison of herself with others about her, she
realized the fact that she possessed an intelligence beyond the
average. The training by her father, too, had been of a superior
kind. There was as well, at the back vaguely, the feeling of
particular self-respect that belongs inevitably to the possessor
of good blood. Finally, she demurely enjoyed a modest
appreciation of her own physical advantages. In short, she had
beauty, brains and breeding. Three things of chief importance to
any woman--though there be many minds as to which may be chief
among the three.

I have said nothing specific thus far as to the outer being of
Mary Turner--except as to filmed eyes and a huddled form. But,
in a happier situation, the girl were winning enough. Indeed,
more! She was one of those that possess an harmonious beauty,
with, too, the penetrant charm that springs from the mind, with
the added graces born of the spirit. Just now, as she sat, a
figure of desolation, there on the bed in the Tombs cell, it
would have required a most analytical observer to determine the
actualities of her loveliness. Her form was disguised by the
droop of exhaustion. Her complexion showed the pallor of
sorrowful vigils. Her face was no more than a mask of misery.
Yet, the shrewd observer, if a lover of beauty, might have found
much for delight, even despite the concealment imposed by her
present condition. Thus, the stormy glory of her dark hair,
great masses that ran a riot of shining ripples and waves. And
the straight line of the nose, not too thin, yet fine enough for
the rapture of a Praxiteles. And the pink daintiness of the
ear-tips, which peered warmly from beneath the pall of tresses.
One could know nothing accurately of the complexion now. But it
were easy to guess that in happier places it would show of a
purity to entice, with a gentle blooming of roses in the cheeks.
Even in this hour of unmitigated evil, the lips revealed a
curving beauty of red--not quite crimson, though near enough for
the word; not quite scarlet either; only, a red gently
enchanting, which turned one's thoughts toward tenderness--with a
hint of desire. It was, too, a generous mouth, not too large;
still, happily, not so small as those modeled by Watteau. It was
altogether winsome--more, it was generous and true, desirable for
kisses--yes!--more desirable for strength and for faith.

Like every intelligent woman, Mary had taken the trouble to
reinforce the worth of her physical attractiveness. The instinct
of sex was strong in her, as it must be in every normal woman,
since that appeal is nature's law. She kept herself supple and
svelte by many exercises, at which her companions in the chamber
scoffed, with the prudent warning that more work must mean more
appetite. With arms still aching from the lifting of heavy bolts
of cloth to and fro from the shelves, she nevertheless was at
pains nightly to brush with the appointed two hundred strokes the
thick masses of her hair. Even here, in the sordid desolation of
the cell, the lustrous sheen witnessed the fidelity of her care.
So, in each detail of her, the keen observer might have found
adequate reason for admiration. There was the delicacy of the
hands, with fingers tapering, with nails perfectly shaped,
neither too dull nor too shining. And there were, too, finally,
the trimly shod feet, set rather primly on the floor, small, and
arched like those of a Spanish Infanta. In truth, Mary Turner
showed the possibilities at least, if not just now the realities,
of a very beautiful woman.

Naturally, in this period of grief, the girl's mind had no
concern with such external merits over which once she had
modestly exulted. All her present energies were set to precise
recollection of the ghastly experience into which she had been
thrust.

In its outline, the event had been tragically simple.

There had been thefts in the store. They had been traced
eventually to a certain department, that in which Mary worked.
The detective was alert. Some valuable silks were missed.
Search followed immediately. The goods were found in Mary's
locker. That was enough. She was charged with the theft. She
protested innocence--only to be laughed at in derision by her
accusers. Every thief declares innocence. Mr. Gilder himself was
emphatic against her. The thieving had been long continued. An
example must be made. The girl was arrested.

The crowded condition of the court calendar kept her for three
months in the Tombs, awaiting trial. She was quite friendless.
To the world, she was only a thief in duress. At the last, the
trial was very short. Her lawyer was merely an unfledged
practitioner assigned to her defense as a formality of the court.
This novice in his profession was so grateful for the first
recognition ever afforded him that he rather assisted than
otherwise the District Attorney in the prosecution of the case.

At the end, twelve good men and true rendered a verdict of guilty
against the shuddering girl in the prisoner's dock.

So simple the history of Mary Turner's trial.... The sentence of
the judge was lenient--only three years!



CHAPTER II. A CHEERFUL PRODIGAL.

That which was the supreme tragedy to the broken girl in the cell
merely afforded rather agreeable entertainment to her former
fellows of the department store. Mary Turner throughout her term
of service there had been without real intimates, so that now
none was ready to mourn over her fate. Even the two room-mates
had felt some slight offense, since they sensed the superiority
of her, though vaguely. Now, they found a smug satisfaction in
the fact of her disaster as emphasizing very pleasurably their
own continuance in respectability.

As many a philosopher has observed, we secretly enjoy the
misfortunes of others, particularly of our friends, since they
are closest to us. Most persons hasten to deny this truth in its
application to themselves. They do so either because from lack of
clear understanding they are not quite honest with themselves,
from lack of clear introspection, or because, as may be more
easily believed, they are not quite honest in the assertion. As a
matter of fact, we do find a singular satisfaction in the
troubles of others. Contemplation of such suffering renders more
striking the contrasted well-being of our own lot. We need the
pains of others to serve as background for our joys--just as sin
is essential as the background for any appreciation of virtue,
even any knowledge of its existence.... So now, on the day of
Mary Turner's trial, there was a subtle gaiety of gossipings to
and fro through the store. The girl's plight was like a
shuttlecock driven hither and yon by the battledores of many
tongues. It was the first time in many years that one of the
employees had been thus accused of theft. Shoplifters were so
common as to be a stale topic. There was a refreshing novelty in
this case, where one of themselves was the culprit. Her fellow
workers chatted desultorily of her as they had opportunity, and
complacently thanked their gods that they were not as she--with
reason. Perhaps, a very few were kindly hearted enough to feel a
touch of sympathy for this ruin of a life.

Of such was Smithson, a member of the executive staff, who did
not hesitate to speak his mind, though none too forcibly. As for
that, Smithson, while the possessor of a dignity nourished by
years of floor-walking, was not given to the holding of vigorous
opinions. Yet, his comment, meager as it was, stood wholly in
Mary's favor. And he spoke with a certain authority, since he
had given official attention to the girl.

Smithson stopped Sarah Edwards, Mr. Gilder's private secretary,
as she was passing through one of the departments that morning,
to ask her if the owner had yet reached his office.

"Been and gone," was the secretary's answer, with the terseness
characteristic of her.

"Gone!" Smithson repeated, evidently somewhat disturbed by the
information. "I particularly wanted to see him."

"He'll be back, all right," Sarah vouchsafed, amiably. "He went
down-town, to the Court of General Sessions. The judge sent for
him about the Mary Turner case."

"Oh, yes, I remember now," Smithson exclaimed. Then he added,
with a trace of genuine feeling, "I hope the poor girl gets off.
She was a nice girl--quite the lady, you know, Miss Edwards."

"No, I don't know," Sarah rejoined, a bit tartly. Truth to tell,
the secretary was haunted by a grim suspicion that she herself
was not quite the lady of her dreams, and never would be able to
acquire the graces of the Vere De Vere. For Sarah, while a most
efficient secretary, was not in her person of that slender
elegance which always characterized her favorite heroines in the
novels she affected. On the contrary, she was of a sort to have
gratified Byron, who declared that a woman in her maturity should
be plump. Now, she recalled with a twinge of envy that the
accused girl had been of an aristocratic slimness of form. "Oh,
did you know her?" she questioned, without any real interest.

Smithson answered with that bland stateliness of manner which was
the fruit of floor-walking politeness.

"Well, I couldn't exactly say I knew her, and yet I might say,
after a manner of speaking, that I did--to a certain extent. You
see, they put her in my department when she first came here to
work. She was a good saleswoman, as saleswomen go. For the
matter of that," he added with a sudden access of energy, "she
was the last girl in the world I'd take for a thief." He
displayed some evidences of embarrassment over the honest feeling
into which he had been betrayed, and made haste to recover his
usual business manner, as he continued formally. "Will you
please let me know when Mr. Gilder arrives? There are one or two
little matters I wish to discuss with him."

"All right!" Sarah agreed briskly, and she hurried on toward the
private office.

The secretary was barely seated at her desk when the violent
opening of the door startled her, and, as she looked up, a cheery
voice cried out:

"Hello, Dad!"

At the same moment, a young man entered, with an air of care-free
assurance, his face radiant. But, as his glance went to the
empty arm-chair at the desk, he halted abruptly, and his
expression changed to one of disappointment.

"Not here!" he grumbled. Then, once again the smile was on his
lips as his eyes fell on the secretary, who had now risen to her
feet in a flutter of excitement.

"Why, Mr. Dick!" Sarah gasped.

"Hello, Sadie!" came the genial salutation. The young man
advanced and shook hands with her warmly. "I'm home again.
Where's Dad?"

Even as he asked the question, the quick sobering of his face
bore witness to his disappointment over not finding his father in
the office. For such was the relationship of the owner of the
department store to this new arrival on the scene. And in the
patent chagrin under which the son now labored was to be found a
certain indication of character not to be disregarded. Unlike
many a child, he really loved his father. The death of the
mother years before had left him without other opportunity for
affection in the home, since he had neither brother nor sister.
He loved his father with a depth of feeling that made between the
two a real camaraderie, despite great differences in temperament.
In that simple and sincere regard which he bore for his father,
the boy revealed a heart ready for love, willing to give of
itself its best for the one beloved. Beyond that, as yet, there
was little to be said of him with exactness. He was a spoiled
child of fortune, if you wish to have it so. Certainly, he was
only a drone in the world's hive. Thus far, he had enjoyed the
good things of life, without ever doing aught to deserve them by
contributing in return--save by his smiles and his genial air of
happiness.

In the twenty-three years of his life, every gift that money
could lavish had been his. If the sum total of benefit was
small, at least there remained the consoling fact that the harm
was even less. Luxury had not sapped the strength of him. He
had not grown vicious, as have so many of his fellows among the
sons of the rich. Some instinct held him aloof from the grosser
vices. His were the trifling faults that had their origin
chiefly in the joy of life, which manifest occasionally in
riotous extravagancies, of a sort actually to harm none, however
absurd and useless they may be.

So much one might see by a glance into the face. He was well
groomed, of course; healthy, all a-tingle with vitality. And in
the clear eyes, which avoided no man's gaze, nor sought any
woman's unseemly, there showed a soul untainted, not yet
developed, not yet debased. Through all his days, Dick Gilder had
walked gladly, in the content that springs to the call of one
possessed of a capacity for enjoyment; possessed, too, of every
means for the gratification of desire. As yet, the man of him
was unrevealed in its integrity. No test had been put upon him.
The fires of suffering had not tried the dross of him. What real
worth might lie under this sunny surface the future must
determine. There showed now only this one significant fact:
that, in the first moment of his return from journeyings abroad,
he sought his father with all eagerness, and was sorely grieved
because the meeting must still be delayed. It was a little
thing, perhaps. Yet, it was capable of meaning much concerning
the nature of the lad. It revealed surely a tender heart, one
responsive to a pure love. And to one of his class, there are
many forces ever present to atrophy such simple, wholesome power
of loving. The ability to love cleanly and absolutely is the
supreme virtue.

Sarah explained that Mr. Gilder had been called to the Court of
General Sessions by the judge.

Dick interrupted her with a gust of laughter.

"What's Dad been doing now?" he demanded, his eyes twinkling.
Then, a reminiscent grin shaped itself on his lips. "Remember
the time that fresh cop arrested him for speeding? Wasn't he
wild? I thought he would have the whole police force
discharged." He smiled again. "The trouble is," he declared
sedately, "that sort of thing requires practice. Now, when I'm
arrested for speeding, I'm not in the least flustered--oh, not a
little bit! But poor Dad! That one experience of his almost
soured his whole life. It was near the death of him--also, of
the city's finest."

By this time, the secretary had regained her usual poise, which
had been somewhat disturbed by the irruption of the young man.
Her round face shone delightedly as she regarded him. There was
a maternal note of rebuke in her voice as she spoke:

"Why, we didn't expect you back for two or three months yet."

Once again, Dick laughed, with an infectious gaiety that brought
a smile of response to the secretary's lips.

"Sadie," he explained confidentially, "don't you dare ever to let
the old man know. He would be all swollen up. It's bad to let a
parent swell up. But the truth is, Sadie, I got kind of homesick
for Dad--yes, just that!" He spoke the words with a sort of
shamefaced wonder. It is not easy for an Anglo-Saxon to confess
the realities of affection in vital intimacies. He repeated the
phrase in a curiously appreciative hesitation, as one astounded
by his own emotion. "Yes, homesick for Dad!"

Then, to cover an excess of sincere feeling, he continued, with a
burst of laughter:

"Besides, Sadie, I was broke."

The secretary sniffed.

"The cable would have handled that end of it, I guess," she said,
succinctly.

There was no word of contradiction from Dick, who, from ample
experience, knew that any demand for funds would have received
answer from the father.

"But what is Dad doing in court?" he demanded.

Sarah explained the matter with her usual conciseness:

"One of the girls was arrested for stealing."

The nature of the son was shown then clearly in one of its best
aspects. At once, he exhibited his instinct toward the quality
of mercy, and, too, his trust in the father whom he loved, by his
eager comment.

"And Dad went to court to get her out of the scrape. That's just
like the old man!"

Sarah, however, showed no hint of enthusiasm. Her mind was ever
of the prosaic sort, little prone to flights. In that prosaic
quality, was to be found the explanation of her dependability as
a private secretary. So, now, she merely made a terse statement.

"She was tried to-day, and convicted. The judge sent for Mr.
Gilder to come down this morning and have a talk with him about
the sentence."

There was no lessening of the expression of certainty on the
young man's face. He loved his father, and he trusted where he
loved.

"It will be all right," he declared, in a tone of entire
conviction. "Dad's heart is as big as a barrel. He'll get her
off."

Then, of a sudden, Dick gave a violent start. He added a
convincing groan.

"Oh, Lord!" he exclaimed, dismally. There was shame in his
voice. "I forgot all about it!"

The secretary regarded him with an expression of amazement.

"All about what?" she questioned.

Dick assumed an air vastly more confidential than at any time
hitherto. He leaned toward the secretary's desk, and spoke with
a new seriousness of manner:

"Sadie, have you any money? I'm broker My taxi' has been waiting
outside all this time."

"Why, yes," the secretary said, cheerfully. "If you will----"

Dick was discreet enough to turn his attention to a picture on
the wall opposite while Sarah went through those acrobatic
performances obligatory on women who take no chances of losing
money by carrying it in purses.

"There!" she called after a few panting seconds, and exhibited a
flushed face.

Dick turned eagerly and seized the banknote offered him.

"Mighty much obliged, Sadie," he said, enthusiastically. "But I
must run. Otherwise, this wouldn't be enough for the fare!" And,
so saying, he darted out of the room.



CHAPTER III. ONLY THREE YEARS.

When, at last, the owner of the store entered the office, his
face showed extreme irritation. He did not vouchsafe any
greeting to the secretary, who regarded him with an accurate
perception of his mood. With a diplomacy born of long
experience, in her first speech Sarah afforded an agreeable
diversion to her employer's line of thought.

"Mr. Hastings, of the Empire store, called you up, Mr. Gilder,
and asked me to let him know when you returned. Shall I get him
on the wire?"

The man's face lightened instantly, and there was even the
beginning of a smile on his lips as he seated himself at the
great mahogany desk.

"Yes, yes!" he exclaimed, with evident enthusiasm. The smile grew
in the short interval before the connection was made. When,
finally, he addressed his friend over the telephone, his tones
were of the cheerfulest.

"Oh, good morning. Yes, certainly. Four will suit me
admirably.... Sunday? Yes, if you like. We can go out after
church, and have luncheon at the country club." After listening
a moment, he laughed in a pleased fashion that had in it a
suggestion of conscious superiority. "My dear fellow," he
declared briskly, "you couldn't beat me in a thousand years.
Why, I made the eighteen holes in ninety-two only last week." He
laughed again at the answer over the wire, then hung up the
receiver and pushed the telephone aside, as he turned his
attention to the papers neatly arranged on the desk ready to his
hand.

The curiosity of the secretary could not be longer delayed.

"What did they do with the Turner girl?" she inquired in an
elaborately casual manner.

Gilder did not look up from the heap of papers, but answered
rather harshly, while once again his expression grew forbidding.

"I don't know--I couldn't wait," he said. He made a petulant
gesture as he went on: "I don't see why Judge Lawlor bothered me
about the matter. He is the one to impose sentence, not I. I am
hours behind with my work now."

For a few minutes he gave himself up to the routine of business,
distributing the correspondence and other various papers for the
action of subordinates, and speaking his orders occasionally to
the attentive secretary with a quickness and precision that
proclaimed the capable executive. The observer would have
realized at once that here was a man obviously fitted to the
control of large affairs. The ability that marches inevitably to
success showed unmistakably in the face and form, and in the
fashion of speech. Edward Gilder was a big man physically,
plainly the possessor of that abundant vital energy which is a
prime requisite for achievement in the ordering of modern
business concerns. Force was, indeed, the dominant quality of
the man. His tall figure was proportionately broad, and he was
heavily fleshed. In fact, the body was too ponderous. Perhaps,
in that characteristic might be found a clue to the chief fault
in his nature. For he was ponderous, spiritually and mentally,
as well as materially. The fact was displayed suggestively in
the face, which was too heavy with its prominent jowls and
aggressive chin and rather bulbous nose. But there was nothing
flabby anywhere. The ample features showed no trace of weakness,
only a rude, abounding strength. There was no lighter touch
anywhere. Evidently a just man according to his own ideas, yet
never one to temper justice with mercy. He appeared, and was, a
very practical and most prosaic business man. He was not given
to a humorous outlook on life. He took it and himself with the
utmost seriousness. He was almost entirely lacking in
imagination, that faculty which is essential to sympathy.

"Take this," he directed presently, when he had disposed of the
matters before him. Forthwith, he dictated the following letter,
and now his voice took on a more unctuous note, as of one who is
appreciative of his own excellent generosity.

"THE EDITOR,

"The New York Herald.

"DEAR SIR: Inclosed please find my check for a thousand dollars
for your free-ice fund. It is going to be a very hard summer for
the poor, and I hope by thus starting the contributions for your
fine charity at this early day that you will be able to
accomplish even more good than usually.
"Very truly yours."

He turned an inquiring glance toward Sarah.

"That's what I usually give, isn't it?"

The secretary nodded energetically.

"Yes," she agreed in her brisk manner, "that's what you have
given every year for the last ten years."

The statement impressed Gilder pleasantly. His voice was more
mellow as he made comment. His heavy face was radiant, and he
smiled complacently.

"Ten thousand dollars to this one charity alone!" he exclaimed.
"Well, it is pleasant to be able to help those less fortunate
than ourselves." He paused, evidently expectant of laudatory
corroboration from the secretary.

But Sarah, though she could be tactful enough on occasion, did
not choose to meet her employer's anticipations just now. For
that matter, her intimate services permitted on her part some
degree of familiarity with the august head of the establishment.
Besides, she did not stand in awe of Gilder, as did the others in
his service. No man is a hero to his valet, or to his secretary.
Intimate association is hostile to hero-worship. So, now, Sarah
spoke nonchalantly, to the indignation of the philanthropist:

"Oh, yes, sir. Specially when you make so much that you don't
miss it."

Gilder's thick gray brows drew down in a frown of displeasure,
while his eyes opened slightly in sheer surprise over the
secretary's unexpected remark. He hesitated for only an instant
before replying with an air of great dignity, in which was a
distinct note of rebuke for the girl's presumption.

"The profits from my store are large, I admit, Sarah. But I
neither smuggle my goods, take rebates from railroads, conspire
against small competitors, nor do any of the dishonest acts that
disgrace other lines of business. So long as I make my profits
honestly, I am honestly entitled to them, no matter how big they
are."

The secretary, being quite content with the havoc she had wrought
in her employer's complacency over his charitableness, nodded,
and contented herself with a demure assent to his outburst.

"Yes, sir," she agreed, very meekly.

Gilder stared at her for a few seconds, somewhat indignantly.
Then, he bethought himself of a subtle form of rebuke by
emphasizing his generosity.

"Have the cashier send my usual five hundred to the Charities
Organization Society," he ordered. With this new evidence of his
generous virtue, the frown passed from his brows. If, for a
fleeting moment, doubt had assailed him under the spur of the
secretary's words, that doubt had now vanished under his habitual
conviction as to his sterling worth to the world at large.

It was, therefore, with his accustomed blandness of manner that
he presently acknowledged the greeting of George Demarest, the
chief of the legal staff that looked after the firm's affairs.
He was aware without being told that the lawyer had called to
acquaint him with the issue in the trial of Mary Turner.

"Well, Demarest?" he inquired, as the dapper attorney advanced
into the room at a rapid pace, and came to a halt facing the
desk, after a lively nod in the direction of the secretary.

The lawyer's face sobered, and his tone as he answered was tinged
with constraint.

"Judge Lawlor gave her three years," he replied, gravely. It was
plain from his manner that he did not altogether approve.

But Gilder was unaffected by the attorney's lack of satisfaction
over the result. On the contrary, he smiled exultantly. His
oritund voice took on a deeper note, as he turned toward the
secretary.

"Good!" he exclaimed. "Take this, Sarah." And he continued, as
the girl opened her notebook and poised the pencil: "Be sure to
have Smithson post a copy of it conspicuously in all the girls'
dressing-rooms, and in the reading-room, and in the lunch-rooms,
and in the assembly-room." He cleared his throat ostentatiously
and proceeded to the dictation of the notice:

"Mary Turner, formerly employed in this store, was to-day
sentenced to prison for three years, having been convicted for
the theft of goods valued at over four hundred dollars. The
management wishes again to draw attention on the part of its
employees to the fact that honesty is always the best policy....
Got that?"

"Yes, sir." The secretary's voice was mechanical, without any
trace of feeling. She was not minded to disturb her employer a
second time this morning by injudicious comment.

"Take it to Smithson," Gilder continued, "and tell him that I
wish him to attend to its being posted according to my directions
at once."

Again, the girl made her formal response in the affirmative, then
left the room.

Gilder brought forth a box of cigars from a drawer of the desk,
opened it and thrust it toward the waiting lawyer, who, however,
shook his head in refusal, and continued to move about the room
rather restlessly. Demarest paid no attention to the other's
invitation to a seat, but the courtesy was perfunctory on
Gilder's part, and he hardly perceived the perturbation of his
caller, for he was occupied in selecting and lighting a cigar
with the care of a connoisseur. Finally, he spoke again, and now
there was an infinite contentment in the rich voice.

"Three years--three years! That ought to be a warning to the rest
of the girls." He looked toward Demarest for acquiescence.

The lawyer's brows were knit as he faced the proprietor of the
store.

"Funny thing, this case!" he ejaculated. "In some features, one
of the most unusual I have seen since I have been practicing
law."

The smug contentment abode still on Gilder's face as he puffed in
leisurely ease on his cigar and uttered a trite condolence.

"Very sad!--quite so! Very sad case, I call it." Demarest went
on speaking, with a show of feeling: "Most unusual case, in my
estimation. You see, the girl keeps on declaring her innocence.
That, of course, is common enough in a way. But here, it's
different. The point is, somehow, she makes her protestations
more convincing than they usually do. They ring true, as it
seems to me."

Gilder smiled tolerantly.

"They didn't ring very true to the jury, it would seem," he
retorted. And his voice was tart as he added: "Nor to the judge,
since he deemed it his duty to give her three years."

"Some persons are not very sensitive to impressions in such
cases, I admit," Demarest returned, coolly. If he meant any
subtlety of allusion to his hearer, it failed wholly to pierce
the armor of complacency.

"The stolen goods were found in her locker," Gilder declared in a
tone of finality. "Some of them, I have been given to
understand, were actually in the pocket of her coat."

"Well," the attorney said with a smile, "that sort of thing makes
good-enough circumstantial evidence, and without circumstantial
evidence there would be few convictions for crime. Yet, as a
lawyer, I'm free to admit that circumstantial evidence alone is
never quite safe as proof of guilt. Naturally, she says some one
else must have put the stolen goods there. As a matter of exact
reasoning, that is quite within the measure of possibility. That
sort of thing has been done countless times."

Gilder sniffed indignantly.

"And for what reason?" he demanded. "It's too absurd to think
about."

"In similar cases," the lawyer answered, "those actually guilty
of the thefts have thus sought to throw suspicion on the innocent
in order to avoid it on themselves when the pursuit got too hot
on their trail. Sometimes, too, such evidence has been
manufactured merely to satisfy a spite against the one unjustly
accused."

"It's too absurd to think about," Gilder repeated, impatiently.
"The judge and the jury found no fault with the evidence."

Demarest realized that this advocacy in behalf of the girl was
hardly fitting on the part of the legal representative of the
store she was supposed to have robbed, so he abruptly changed his
line of argument.

"She says that her record of five years in your employ ought to
count something in her favor."

Gilder, however, was not disposed to be sympathetic as to a
matter so flagrantly opposed to his interests.

"A court of justice has decreed her guilty," he asserted once
again, in his ponderous manner. His emphasis indicated that
there the affair ended.

Demarest smiled cynically as he strode to and fro.

"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 ejaculation 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 attitude 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 assurance"

"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--damn--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 space 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."

The lawyer smiled dryly, since he had his back turned at the
moment.

"Why," he vouchsafed, "she just said that, if you would see her
for ten minutes, she would tell you how to stop the thefts in
this store."

Gilder displayed signs of triumph. He brought his chair to a
level and pounded the desk with a weighty fist.

"There!" he cried. "I knew it. The girl wants to confess.
Well, it's the first sign of decent feeling she's shown. I
suppose it ought to be encouraged. Probably there have been
others mixed up in this."

Demarest attempted no denial.

"Perhaps," he admitted, though he spoke altogether without
conviction. "But," he continued insinuatingly, "at least it can
do no harm if you see her. I thought you would be willing, so I
spoke to the District Attorney, and he has given orders to bring
her here for a few minutes on the way to the Grand Central
Station. They're taking her up to Burnsing, you know. I wish,
Gilder, you would have a little talk with her. No harm in that!"
With the saying, the lawyer abruptly went out of the office,
leaving the owner of the store fuming.



CHAPTER IV. KISSES AND KLEPTOMANIA.

"Hello, Dad!"

After the attorney's departure, Gilder had been rather fussily
going over some of the papers on his desk. He was experiencing a
vague feeling of injury on account of the lawyer's ill-veiled
efforts to arouse his sympathy in behalf of the accused girl. In
the instinct of strengthening himself against the possibility of
yielding to what he deemed weakness, the magnate rehearsed the
facts that justified his intolerance, and, indeed, soon came to
gloating over the admirable manner in which righteousness thrives
in the world. And it was then that an interruption came in the
utterance of two words, words of affection, of love, cried out in
the one voice he most longed to hear--for the voice was that of
his son. Yet, he did not look up. The thing was altogether
impossible! The boy was philandering, junketing, somewhere on the
Riviera. His first intimation as to the exact place would come
in the form of a cable asking for money. Somehow, his feelings
had been unduly stirred that morning; he had grown sentimental,
dreaming of pleasant things.... All this in a second. Then, he
looked up. Why, it was true! It was Dick's face there, smiling
in the doorway. Yes, it was Dick, it was Dick himself! Gilder
sprang to his feet, his face suddenly grown younger, radiant.

"Dick!" The big voice was softened to exquisite tenderness.

As the eyes of the two met, the boy rushed forward, and in the
next moment the hands of father and son clasped firmly. They
were silent in the first emotion of their greeting. Presently,
Gilder spoke, with an effort toward harshness in his voice to
mask how much he was shaken. But the tones rang more kindly than
any he had used for many a day, tremulous with affection.

"What brought you back?" he demanded.

Dick, too, had felt the tension of an emotion far beyond that of
the usual things. He was forced to clear his throat before he
answered with that assumption of nonchalance which he regarded as
befitting the occasion.

"Why, I just wanted to come back home," he said; lightly. A
sudden recollection came to give him poise in this time of
emotional disturbance, and he added hastily: "And, for the love
of heaven, give Sadie five dollars. I borrowed it from her to pay
the taxi'. You see, Dad, I'm broke."

"Of course!" With the saying, Edward Gilder roared Gargantuan
laughter. In the burst of merriment, his pent feelings found
their vent. He was still chuckling when he spoke, sage from much
experience of ocean travel. "Poker on the ship, I suppose."

The young man, too, smiled reminiscently as he answered:

"No, not that, though I did have a little run in at Monte Carlo.
But it was the ship that finished me, at that. You see, Dad,
they hired Captain Kidd and a bunch of pirates as stewards, and
what they did to little Richard was something fierce. And yet,
that wasn't the real trouble, either. The fact is, I just
naturally went broke. Not a hard thing to do on the other side."

"Nor on this," the father interjected, dryly.

"Anyhow, it doesn't matter much," Dick replied, quite unabashed.
"Tell me, Dad, how goes it?"

Gilder settled himself again in his chair, and gazed benignantly
on his son.

"Pretty well," he said contentedly; "pretty well, son. I'm glad
to see you home again, my boy." There was a great tenderness in
the usually rather cold gray eyes.

The young man answered promptly, with delight in his manner of
speech, and a sincerity that revealed the underlying merit of his
nature.

"And I'm glad to be home, Dad, to be"--there was again that
clearing of the throat, but he finished bravely--"with you."

The father avoided a threatening display of emotion by an abrupt
change of subject to the trite.

"Have a good time?" he inquired casually, while fumbling with
the papers on the desk.

Dick's face broke in a smile of reminiscent happiness.

"The time of my young life!" He paused, and the smile broadened.
There was a mighty enthusiasm in his voice as he continued: "I
tell you, Dad, it's a fact that I did almost break the bank at
Monte Carlo. I'd have done it sure, if only my money had held
out."

"It seems to me that I've heard something of the sort before,"
was Gilder's caustic comment. But his smile was still wholly
sympathetic. He took a curious vicarious delight in the
escapades of his son, probably because he himself had committed
no follies in his callow days. "Why didn't you cable me?" he
asked, puzzled at such restraint on the part of his son.

Dick answered with simple sincerity.

"Because it gave me a capital excuse for coming home."

It was Sarah who afforded a diversion. She had known Dick while
he was yet a child, had bought him candy, had felt toward him a
maternal liking that increased rather than diminished as he grew
to manhood. Now, her face lighted at sight of him, and she smiled
a welcome.

"I see you have found him," she said, with a ripple of laughter.

Dick welcomed this interruption of the graver mood.

"Sadie," he said, with a manner of the utmost seriousness, "you
are looking finer than ever. And how thin you have grown!"

The girl, eager with fond fancies toward the slender ideal,
accepted the compliment literally.

"Oh, Mr. Dick!" she exclaimed, rapturously. "How much do you
think I have lost?"

The whimsical heir of the house of Gilder surveyed his victim
critically, then spoke with judicial solemnity.

"About two ounces, Sadie."

There came a look of deep hurt on Sadie's face at the flippant
jest, which Dick himself was quick to note.

He had not guessed she was thus acutely sensitive concerning her
plumpness. Instantly, he was all contrition over his unwitting
offense inflicted on her womanly vanity.

"Oh, I'm sorry, Sadie," he exclaimed penitently. "Please don't be
really angry with me. Of course, I didn't mean----"

"To twit on facts!" the secretary interrupted, bitterly.

"Pooh!" Dick cried, craftily. "You aren't plump enough to be
sensitive about it. Why, you're just right." There was
something very boyish about his manner, as he caught at the
girl's arm. A memory of the days when she had cuddled him caused
him to speak warmly, forgetting the presence of his father.
"Now, don't be angry, Sadie. Just give me a little kiss, as you
used to do." He swept her into his arms, and his lips met hers
in a hearty caress. "There!" he cried. "Just to show there's no
ill feeling."

The girl was completely mollified, though in much embarrassment.

"Why, Mr. Dick!" she stammered, in confusion. "Why, Mr. Dick!"

Gilder, who had watched the scene in great astonishment, now
interposed to end it.

"Stop, Dick!" he commanded, crisply. "You are actually making
Sarah blush. I think that's about enough, son."

But a sudden unaccustomed gust of affection swirled in the breast
of the lad. Plain Anglo-Saxon as he was, with all that implies
as to the avoidance of displays of emotion, nevertheless he had
been for a long time in lands far from home, where the habits of
impulsive and affectionate peoples were radically unlike our own
austerer forms. So now, under the spur of an impulse suggested
by the dalliance with the buxom secretary, he grinned widely and
went to his father.

"A little kiss never hurts any one," he declared, blithely. Then
he added vivaciously: "Here, I'll show you!"

With the words, he clasped his arms around his father's neck,
and, before that amazed gentleman could understand his purpose,
he had kissed soundly first the one cheek and then the other,
each with a hearty, wholesome smack of filial piety. This done,
he stood back, still beaming happily, while the astounded Sarah
tittered bewilderedly. For his own part, Dick was quite
unashamed. He loved his father. For once, he had expressed that
fondness in a primitive fashion, and he was glad.

The older man withdrew a step, and there rested motionless, under
the sway of an emotion akin to dismay. He stood staring intently
at his son with a perplexity in his expression that was almost
ludicrous. When, at last, he spoke, his voice was a rumble of
strangely shy pleasure.

"God bless my soul!" he exclaimed, violently. Then he raised a
hand, and rubbed first one cheek, and after it its fellow, with a
gentleness that was significant. The feeling provoked by the
embrace showed plainly in his next words. "Why, that's the first
time you have kissed me, Dick, since you were a little boy. God
bless my soul!" he repeated. And now there was a note of
jubilation.

The son, somewhat disturbed by this emotion he had aroused,
nevertheless answered frankly with the expression of his own
feeling, as he advanced and laid a hand on his father's shoulder.

"The fact is, Dad," he said quietly, with a smile that was good
to see, "I am awfully glad to see you again."

"Are you, son?" the father cried happily. Then, abruptly his
manner changed, for he felt himself perilously close to the
maudlin in this new yielding to sentimentality. Such kisses of
tenderness, however agreeable in themselves, were hardly fitting
to one of his dignity. "You clear out of here, boy," he
commanded, brusquely. "I'm a working man. But here, wait a
minute," he added. He brought forth from a pocket a neat sheaf
of banknotes, which he held out. "There's carfare for you," he
said with a chuckle. "And now clear out. I'll see you at
dinner."

Dick bestowed the money in his pocket, and again turned toward
the door.

"You can always get rid of me on the same terms," he remarked
slyly. And then the young man gave evidence that he, too, had
some of his father's ability in things financial. For, in the
doorway he turned with a final speech, which was uttered in
splendid disregard for the packet of money he had just
received--perhaps, rather, in a splendid regard for it. "Oh,
Dad, please don't forget to give Sadie that five dollars I
borrowed from her for the taxi'." And with that impertinent
reminder he was gone.

The owner of the store returned to his labors with a new zest,
for the meeting with his son had put him in high spirits.
Perhaps it might have been better for Mary Turner had she come to
him just then, while he was yet in this softened mood. But fate
had ordained that other events should restore him to his usual
harder self before their interview. The effect was, indeed,
presently accomplished by the advent of Smithson into the office.
He entered with an expression of discomfiture on his rather
vacuous countenance. He walked almost nimbly to the desk and
spoke with evident distress, as his employer looked up
interrogatively.

"McCracken has detained--er--a--lady, sir," he said, feebly.
"She has been searched, and we have found about a hundred dollars
worth of laces on her."

"Well?" Gilder demanded, impatiently. Such affairs were too
common in the store to make necessary this intrusion of the
matter on him. "Why did you come to me about it?" His staff
knew just what to do with shoplifters.

At once, Smithson became apologetic, while refusing to retreat.

"I'm very sorry, sir," he said haltingly, "but I thought it
wiser, sir, to--er--to bring the matter to your personal
attention."

"Quite unnecessary, Smithson," Gilder returned, with asperity.
"You know my views on the subject of property. Tell McCracken to
have the thief arrested."

Smithson cleared his throat doubtfully, and in his stress of
feeling he even relaxed a trifle that majestical erectness of
carriage that had made him so valuable as a floor-walker.

"She's not exactly a--er--a thief," he ventured.

"You are trifling, Smithson," the owner of the store exclaimed,
in high exasperation. "Not a thief! And you caught her with a
hundred dollars worth of laces that she hadn't bought. Not a
thief! What in heaven's name do you call her, then?"

"A kleptomaniac," Smithson explained, retaining his manner of
mild insistence. "You see, sir, it's this way. The lady happens
to be the wife of J. W. Gaskell, the banker, you know."

Yes, Gilder did know. The mention of the name was like a spell
in the effect it wrought on the attitude of the irritated owner
of the store. Instantly, his expression changed. While before
his features had been set grimly, while his eyes had flashed
wrathfully, there was now only annoyance over an event markedly
unfortunate.

"How extremely awkward!" he cried; and there was a very real
concern in his voice. He regarded Smithson kindly, whereat that
rather puling gentleman once again assumed his martial bearing.
"You were quite right in coming to me." For a moment he was
silent, plunged in thought. Finally he spoke with the
decisiveness characteristic of him. "Of course, there's nothing
we can do. Just put the stuff back on the counter, and let her
go."

But Smithson had not yet wholly unburdened himself. Instead of
immediately leaving the room in pursuance of the succinct
instructions given him, he again cleared his throat nervously,
and made known a further aggravating factor in the situation.

"She's very angry, Mr. Gilder," he announced, timidly.
"She--er--she demands an--er--an apology."

The owner of the store half-rose from his chair, then threw
himself back with an exclamation of disgust. He again ejaculated
the words with which he had greeted his son's unexpected kisses,
but now there was a vast difference in the intonation.

"God bless my soul!" he cried. From his expression, it was clear
that a pious aspiration was farthest from his thought. On the
contrary! Again, he fell silent, considering the situation which
Smithson had presented, and, as he reflected, his frown betrayed
the emotion natural enough under the circumstances. At last,
however, he mastered his irritation to some degree, and spoke his
command briefly. "Well, Smithson, apologize to her. It can't be
helped." Then his face lighted with a sardonic amusement. "And,
Smithson," he went on with a sort of elephantine playfulness, "I
shall take it as a personal favor if you will tactfully advise
the lady that the goods at Altman and Stern's are really even
finer than ours."

When Smithson had left the office, Gilder turned to his
secretary.

"Take this," he directed, and he forthwith dictated the following
letter to the husband of the lady who was not a thief, as
Smithson had so painstakingly pointed out:

"J. W. GASKELL, ESQ., "Central National Bank, New York.

"MY DEAR Mr. GASKELL: I feel that I should be doing less than my
duty as a man if I did not let you know at once that Mrs. Gaskell
is in urgent need of medical attention. She came into our store
to-day, and----"

He paused for a moment. "No, put it this way," he said finally:

"We found her wandering about our store to-day in a very nervous
condition. In her excitement, she carried away about one hundred
dollars' worth of rare laces. Not recognizing her, our store
detective detained her for a short time. Fortunately for us all,
Mrs. Gaskell was able to explain who she was, and she has just
gone to her home. Hoping for Mrs. Gaskell's speedy recovery, and
with all good wishes, I am, "Yours very
truly."

Yet, though he had completed the letter, Gilder did not at once
take up another detail of his business. Instead, he remained
plunged in thought, and now his frown was one of simple
bewilderment. A number of minutes passed before he spoke, and
then his words revealed distinctly what had been his train of
meditation.

"Sadie," he said in a voice of entire sincerity, "I can't
understand theft. It's a thing absolutely beyond my
comprehension."

On the heels of this ingenuous declaration, Smithson entered the
office, and that excellent gentleman appeared even more perturbed
than before.

"What on earth is the matter now?" Gilder spluttered,
suspiciously.

"It's Mrs. Gaskell still," Smithson replied in great trepidation.
"She wants you personally, Mr. Gilder, to apologize to her. She
says that the action taken against her is an outrage, and she is
not satisfied with the apologies of all the rest of us. She says
you must make one, too, and that the store detective must be
discharged for intolerable insolence."

Gilder bounced up from his chair angrily.

"I'll be damned if I'll discharge McCracken," he vociferated,
glaring on Smithson, who shrank visibly.

But that mild and meek man had a certain strength of pertinacity.
Besides, in this case, he had been having multitudinous troubles
of his own, which could be ended only by his employer's placating
of the offended kleptomaniac.

"But about the apology, Mr. Gilder," he reminded, speaking very
deferentially, yet with insistence.

Business instinct triumphed over the magnate's irritation, and
his face cleared.

"Oh, I'll apologize," he said with a wry smile of discomfiture.
"I'll make things even up a bit when I get an apology from
Gaskell. I shrewdly suspect that that estimable gentleman is
going to eat humble pie, of my baking, from his wife's recipe.
And his will be an honest apology--which mine won't, not by a
damned sight!" With the words, he left the room, in his wake a
hugely relieved Smithson.

Alone in the office, Sarah neglected her work for a few minutes
to brood over the startling contrast of events that had just
forced itself on her attention. She was not a girl given to the
analysis of either persons or things, but in this instance the
movement of affairs had come close to her, and she was compelled
to some depth of feeling by the two aspects of life on which
to-day she looked. In the one case, as she knew it, a girl under
the urge of poverty had stolen. That thief had been promptly
arrested, finally she had been tried, had been convicted, had
been sentenced to three years in prison. In the other case, a
woman of wealth had stolen. There had been no punishment. A
euphemism of kleptomania had been offered and accepted as
sufficient excuse for her crime. A polite lie had been written
to her husband, a banker of power in the city. To her, the
proprietor of the store was even now apologizing in courteous
phrases of regret.... And Mary Turner had been sentenced to three
years in prison. Sadie shook her head in dolorous doubt, as she
again bent over the keys of her typewriter. Certainly, some
happenings in this world of ours did not seem quite fair.



CHAPTER V. THE VICTIM OF THE LAW.

It was on this same day that Sarah, on one of her numerous trips
through the store in behalf of Gilder, was accosted by a
salesgirl, whose name, Helen Morris, she chanced to know. It was
in a spot somewhere out of the crowd, so that for the moment the
two were practically alone. The salesgirl showed signs of
embarrassment as she ventured to lay a detaining hand on Sarah's
arm, but she maintained her position, despite the secretary's
manner of disapproval.

"What on earth do you want?" Sarah inquired, snappishly.

The salesgirl put her question at once.

"What did they do to Mary Turner?"

"Oh, that!" the secretary exclaimed, with increased impatience
over the delay, for she was very busy, as always. "You will all
know soon enough."

"Tell me now." The voice of the girl was singularly compelling;
there was something vividly impressive about her just now, though
her pallid, prematurely mature face and the thin figure in the
regulation black dress and white apron showed ordinarily only
insignificant. "Tell me now," she repeated, with a monotonous
emphasis that somehow moved Sarah to obedience against her will,
greatly to her own surprise.

"They sent her to prison for three years," she answered, sharply.

"Three years?" The salesgirl had repeated the words in a tone
that was indefinable, yet a tone vehement in its incredulous
questioning. "Three years?" she said again, as one refusing to
believe.

"Yes," Sarah said, impressed by the girl's earnestness; "three
years."

"Good God!" There was no irreverence in the exclamation that
broke from the girl's lips. Instead, only a tense horror that
touched to the roots of emotion.

Sarah regarded this display of feeling on the part of the young
woman before her with an increasing astonishment. It was not in
her own nature to be demonstrative, and such strong expression of
emotion as this she deemed rather suspicious. She recalled, in
addition, the fact that his was not the first time that Helen
Morris had shown a particular interest in the fate of Mary
Turner. Sarah wondered why.

"Say," she demanded, with the directness habitual to her, "why
are you so anxious about it? This is the third time you have
asked me about Mary Turner. What's it to you, I'd like to know?"

The salesgirl started violently, and a deep flush drove the
accustomed pallor from her cheeks. She was obviously much
disturbed by the question.

"What is it to me?" she repeated in an effort to gain time.
"Why, nothing--nothing at all!" Her expression of distress
lightened a little as she hit on an excuse that might serve to
justify her interest. "Nothing at all, only--she's a friend of
mine, a great friend of mine. Oh, yes!" Then, in an instant, the
look of relief vanished, as once again the terrible reality
hammered on her consciousness, and an overwhelming dejection
showed in the dull eyes and in the drooping curves of the white
lips. There was a monotone of desolation as she went on speaking
in a whisper meant for the ears of no other. "It's awful--three
years! Oh, I didn't understand! It's awful!--awful!" With the
final word, she hurried off, her head bowed. She was still
murmuring brokenly, incoherently. Her whole attitude was of
wondering grief.

Sarah stared after the girl in complete mystification. She could
not at first guess any possible cause for an emotion so poignant.
Presently, however, her shrewd, though very prosaic, commonsense
suggested a simple explanation of the girl's extraordinary
distress.

"I'll bet that girl has been tempted to steal. But she didn't,
because she was afraid." With this satisfactory conclusion of
her wonderment, the secretary hurried on her way, quite content.
It never occurred to her that the girl might have been tempted to
steal--and had not resisted the temptation.

It was on account of this brief conversation with the salesgirl
that Sarah was thinking intently of Mary Turner, after her return
to the office, from which Gilder himself happened to be absent
for the moment. As the secretary glanced up at the opening of
the door, she did not at first recognize the figure outlined
there. She remembered Mary Turner as a tall, slender girl, who
showed an underlying vitality in every movement, a girl with a
face of regular features, in which was a complexion of blended
milk and roses, with a radiant joy of life shining through all
her arduous and vulgar conditions. Instead of this, now, she saw
a frail form that stood swaying in the opening of the doorway,
that bent in a sinister fashion which told of bodily impotence,
while the face was quite bloodless. And, too, there was over all
else a pall of helplessness--helplessness that had endured much,
and must still endure infinitely more.

As a reinforcement of the dread import of that figure of wo, a
man stood beside it, and one of his hands was clasped around the
girl's wrist, a man who wore his derby hat somewhat far back on
his bullet-shaped head, whose feet were conspicuous in shoes with
very heavy soles and very square toes.

It was the man who now took charge of the situation. Cassidy,
from Headquarters, spoke in a rough, indifferent voice, well
suited to his appearance of stolid strength.

"The District Attorney told me to bring this girl here on my way
to the Grand Central Station with her."

Sarah got to her feet mechanically. Somehow, from the raucous
notes of the policeman's voice, she understood in a flash of
illumination that the pitiful figure there in the doorway was
that of Mary Turner, whom she had remembered so different, so
frightfully different. She spoke with a miserable effort toward
her usual liveliness.

"Mr. Gilder will be right back. Come in and wait." She wished
to say something more, something of welcome or of mourning, to
the girl there, but she found herself incapable of a single word
for the moment, and could only stand dumb while the man stepped
forward, with his charge following helplessly in his clutch.

The two went forward very slowly, the officer, carelessly
conscious of his duty, walking with awkward steps to suit the
feeble movements of the girl, the girl letting herself be dragged
onward, aware of the futility of any resistance to the inexorable
power that now had her in its grip, of which the man was the
present agent. As the pair came thus falteringly into the center
of the room, Sarah at last found her voice for an expression of
sympathy.

"I'm sorry, Mary," she said, hesitatingly. "I'm terribly sorry,
terribly sorry!"

The girl, who had halted when the officer halted, as a matter of
course, did not look up. She stood still, swaying a little as if
from weakness. Her voice was lifeless.

"Are you?" she said. "I did not know. Nobody has been near me
the whole time I have been in the Tombs." There was infinite
pathos in the tones as she repeated the words so fraught with
dreadfulness. "Nobody has been near me!"

The secretary felt a sudden glow of shame. She realized the
justice of that unconscious accusation, for, till to-day, she had
had no thought of the suffering girl there in the prison. To
assuage remorse, she sought to give evidence as to a prevalent
sympathy.

"Why," she exclaimed, "there was Helen Morris to-day! She has
been asking about you again and again. She's all broken up over
your trouble."

But the effort on the secretary's part was wholly without
success.

"Who is Helen Morris?" the lifeless voice demanded. There was no
interest in the question.

Sarah experienced a momentary astonishment, for she was still
remembering the feverish excitement displayed by the salesgirl,
who had declared herself to be a most intimate friend of the
convict. But the mystery was to remain unsolved, since Gilder
now entered the office. He walked with the quick, bustling
activity that was ordinarily expressed in his every movement. He
paused for an instant, as he beheld the two visitors in the
center of the room, then he spoke curtly to the secretary, while
crossing to his chair at the desk.

"You may go, Sarah. I will ring when I wish you again."

There followed an interval of silence, while the secretary was
leaving the office and the girl with her warder stood waiting on
his pleasure. Gilder cleared his throat twice in an
embarrassment foreign to him, before finally he spoke to the
girl. At last, the proprietor of the store expressed himself in
a voice of genuine sympathy, for the spectacle of wo presented
there before his very eyes moved him to a real distress, since it
was indeed actual, something that did not depend on an
appreciation to be developed out of imagination.

"My girl," Gilder said gently--his hard voice was softened by an
honest regret--"my girl, I am sorry about this."

"You should be!" came the instant answer. Yet, the words were
uttered with a total lack of emotion. It seemed from their
intonation that the speaker voiced merely a statement concerning
a recondite matter of truth, with which sentiment had nothing
whatever to do. But the effect on the employer was unfortunate.
It aroused at once his antagonism against the girl. His instinct
of sympathy with which he had greeted her at the outset was
repelled, and made of no avail. Worse, it was transformed into
an emotion hostile to the one who thus offended him by rejection
of the well-meant kindliness of his address

"Come, come!" he exclaimed, testily. "That's no tone to take
with me."

"Why? What sort of tone do you expect me to take?" was the
retort in the listless voice. Yet, now, in the dullness ran a
faint suggestion of something sinister.

"I expected a decent amount of humility from one in your
position," was the tart rejoinder of the magnate.

Life quickened swiftly in the drooping form of the girl. Her
muscles tensed. She stood suddenly erect, in the vigor of her
youth again. Her face lost in the same second its bleakness of
pallor. The eyes opened widely, with startling abruptness, and
looked straight into those of the man who had employed her.

"Would you be humble," she demanded, and now her voice was become
softly musical, yet forbidding, too, with a note of passion,
"would you be humble if you were going to prison for three
years--for something you didn't do?"

There was anguish in the cry torn from the girl's throat in the
sudden access of despair. The words thrilled Gilder beyond
anything that he had supposed possible in such case. He found
himself in this emergency totally at a loss, and moved in his
chair doubtfully, wishing to say something, and quite unable. He
was still seeking some question, some criticism, some rebuke,
when he was unfeignedly relieved to hear the policeman's harsh
voice.

"Don't mind her, sir," Cassidy said. He meant to make his manner
very reassuring. "They all say that. They are innocent, of
course! Yep--they all say it. It don't do 'em any good, but just
the same they all swear they're innocent. They keep it up to the
very last, no matter how right they've been got."

The voice of the girl rang clear. There was a note of insistence
that carried a curious dignity of its own. The very simplicity
of her statement might have had a power to convince one who
listened without prejudice, although the words themselves were of
the trite sort that any protesting criminal might utter.

"I tell you, I didn't do it!"

Gilder himself felt the surge of emotion that swung through these
moments, but he would not yield to it. With his lack of
imagination, he could not interpret what this time must mean to
the girl before him. Rather, he merely deemed it his duty to
carry through this unfortunate affair with a scrupulous attention
to detail, in the fashion that had always been characteristic of
him during the years in which he had steadily mounted from the
bottom to the top.

"What's the use of all this pretense?" he demanded, sharply.
"You were given a fair trial, and there's an end of it."

The girl, standing there so feebly, seeming indeed to cling for
support to the man who always held her thus closely by the wrist,
spoke again with an astonishing clearness, even with a sort of
vivacity, as if she explained easily something otherwise in
doubt.

"Oh, no, I wasn't!" she contradicted bluntly, with a singular
confidence of assertion. "Why, if the trial had been fair, I
shouldn't be here."

The harsh voice of Cassidy again broke in on the passion of the
girl with a professional sneer.

"That's another thing they all say."

But the girl went on speaking fiercely, impervious to the man's
coarse sarcasm, her eyes, which had deepened almost to purple,
still fixed piercingly on Gilder, who, for some reason wholly
inexplicable to him, felt himself strangely disturbed under that
regard.

"Do you call it fair when the lawyer I had was only a boy--one
whom the court told me to take, a boy trying his first case--my
case, that meant the ruin of my life? My lawyer! Why, he was
just getting experience--getting it at my expense!" The girl
paused as if exhausted by the vehemence of her emotion, and at
last the sparkling eyes drooped and the heavy lids closed over
them. She swayed a little, so that the officer tightened his
clasp on her wrist.

There followed a few seconds of silence. Then Gilder made an
effort to shake off the feeling that had so possessed him, and to
a certain degree he succeeded.

"The jury found you guilty," he asserted, with an attempt to make
his voice magisterial in its severity.

Instantly, Mary was aroused to a new outburst of protest. Once
again, her eyes shot their fires at the man seated behind the
desk, and she went forward a step imperiously, dragging the
officer in her wake.

"Yes, the jury found me guilty," she agreed, with fine scorn in
the musical cadences of her voice. "Do you know why? I can tell
you, Mr. Gilder. It was because they had been out for three
hours without reaching a decision. The evidence didn't seem to
be quite enough for some of them, after all. Well, the judge
threatened to lock them up all night. The men wanted to get
home. The easy thing to do was to find me guilty, and let it go
at that. Was that fair, do you think? And that's not all,
either. Was it fair of you, Mr. Gilder? Was it fair of you to
come to the court this morning, and tell the judge that I should
be sent to prison as a warning to others?"

A quick flush burned on the massive face of the man whom she thus
accused, and his eyes refused to meet her steady gaze of
reproach.

"You know!" he exclaimed, in momentary consternation. Again, her
mood had affected his own, so that through a few hurrying seconds
he felt himself somehow guilty of wrong against this girl, so
frank and so rebuking.

"I heard you in the courtroom," she said. "The dock isn't very
far from the bench where you spoke to the judge about my case.
Yes, I heard you. It wasn't: Did I do it? Or, didn't I do it?
No; it was only that I must be made a warning to others."

Again, silence fell for a tense interval. Then, finally, the
girl spoke in a different tone. Where before her voice had been
vibrant with the instinct of complaint against the mockery of
justice under which she suffered, now there was a deeper note,
that of most solemn truth.

"Mr. Gilder," she said simply, "as God is my judge, I am going to
prison for three years for something I didn't do."

But the sincerity of her broken cry fell on unheeding ears. The
coarse nature of the officer had long ago lost whatever elements
of softness there might have been to develop in a gentler
occupation. As for the owner of the store, he was not
sufficiently sensitive to feel the verity in the accents of the
speaker. Moreover, he was a man who followed the conventional,
with never a distraction due to imagination and sympathy. Just
now, too, he was experiencing a keen irritation against himself
because of the manner in which he had been sensible to the
influence of her protestation, despite his will to the contrary.
That irritation against himself only reacted against the girl,
and caused him to steel his heart to resist any tendency toward
commiseration. So, this declaration of innocence was made quite
in vain--indeed, served rather to strengthen his disfavor toward
the complainant, and to make his manner harsher when she voiced
the pitiful question over which she had wondered and grieved.

"Why did you ask the judge to send me to prison?"

"The thieving that has been going on in this store for over a
year has got to stop," Gilder answered emphatically, with all his
usual energy of manner restored. As he spoke, he raised his eyes
and met the girl's glance fairly. Thought of the robberies was
quite enough to make him pitiless toward the offender.

"Sending me to prison won't stop it," Mary Turner said, drearily.

"Perhaps not," Gilder sternly retorted. "But the discovery and
punishment of the other guilty ones will." His manner changed to
a business-like alertness. "You sent word to me that you could
tell me how to stop the thefts in the store. Well, my girl, do
this, and, while I can make no definite promise, I'll see what
can be done about getting you out of your present difficulty."
He picked up a pencil, pulled a pad of blank paper convenient to
his hand, and looked at the girl expectantly, with aggressive
inquiry in his gaze. "Tell me now," he concluded, "who were your
pals?"

The matter-of-fact manner of this man who had unwittingly wronged
her so frightfully was the last straw on the girl's burden of
suffering. Under it, her patient endurance broke, and she cried
out in a voice of utter despair that caused Gilder to start
nervously, and even impelled the stolid officer to a frown of
remonstrance.

"I have no pals!" she ejaculated, furiously. "I never stole
anything in my life. Must I go on telling you over and over
again?" Her voice rose in a wail of misery. "Oh, why won't any
one believe me?"

Gilder was much offended by this display of an hysterical grief,
which seemed to his phlegmatic temperament altogether unwarranted
by the circumstances. He spoke decisively.

"Unless you can control yourself, you must go." He pushed away
the pad of paper, and tossed the pencil aside in physical
expression of his displeasure. "Why did you send that message,
if you have nothing to say?" he demanded, with increasing
choler.

But now the girl had regained her former poise. She stood a
little drooping and shaken, where for a moment she had been erect
and tensed. There was a vast weariness in her words as she
answered.

"I have something to tell you, Mr. Gilder," she said, quietly.
"Only, I--I sort of lost my grip on the way here, with this man
by my side."

"Most of 'em do, the first time," the officer commented, with a
certain grim appreciation.

"Well?" Gilder insisted querulously, as the girl hesitated.

At once, Mary went on speaking, and now a little increase of
vigor trembled in her tones.

"When you sit in a cell for three months waiting for your trial,
as I did, you think a lot. And, so, I got the idea that if I
could talk to you, I might be able to make you understand what's
really wrong. And if I could do that, and so help out the other
girls, what has happened to me would not, after all, be quite so
awful--so useless, somehow." Her voice lowered to a quick
pleading, and she bent toward the man at the desk. "Mr. Gilder,"
she questioned, "do you really want to stop the girls from
stealing?"

"Most certainly I do," came the forcible reply.

The girl spoke with a great earnestness, deliberately.

"Then, give them a fair chance."

The magnate stared in sincere astonishment over this absurd, this
futile suggestion for his guidance.

"What do you mean?" he vociferated, with rising indignation.
There was an added hostility in his demeanor, for it seemed to
him that this thief of his goods whom he had brought to justice
was daring to trifle with him. He grew wrathful over the
suspicion, but a secret curiosity still held his temper within
bounds "What do you mean?" he repeated; and now the full force
of his strong voice set the room trembling.

The tones of the girl came softly musical, made more delicately
resonant to the ear by contrast with the man's roaring.

"Why," she said, very gently, "I mean just this: Give them a
living chance to be honest."

"A living chance!" The two words were exploded with dynamic
violence. The preposterousness of the advice fired Gilder with
resentment so pervasive that through many seconds he found
himself unable to express the rage that flamed within him.

The girl showed herself undismayed by his anger.

"Yes," she went on, quietly; "that's all there is to it. Give
them a living chance to get enough food to eat, and a decent room
to sleep in, and shoes that will keep their feet off the pavement
winter mornings. Do you think that any girl wants to steal? Do
you think that any girl wants to risk----?"

By this time, however, Gilder had regained his powers of speech,
and he interrupted stormily.

"And is this what you have taken up my time for? You want to
make a maudlin plea for guilty, dishonest girls, when I thought
you really meant to bring me facts."

Nevertheless, Mary went on with her arraignment uncompromisingly.
There was a strange, compelling energy in her inflections that
penetrated even the pachydermatous officer, so that, though he
thought her raving, he let her rave on, which was not at all his
habit of conduct, and did indeed surprise him mightily. As for
Gilder, he felt helpless in some puzzling fashion that was
totally foreign to his ordinary self. He was still glowing with
wrath over the method by which he had been victimized into giving
the girl a hearing. Yet, despite his chagrin, he realized that
he could not send her from him forthwith. By some inexplicable
spell she bound him impotent.

"We work nine hours a day," the quiet voice went on, a curious
pathos in the rich timbre of it; "nine hours a day, for six days
in the week. That's a fact, isn't it? And the trouble is, an
honest girl can't live on six dollars a week. She can't do it,
and buy food and clothes, and pay room-rent and carfare. That's
another fact, isn't it?"

Mary regarded the owner of the store with grave questioning in
her violet eyes. Under the urgency of emotion, color crept into
the pallid cheeks, and now her face was very beautiful--so
beautiful, indeed, that for a little the charm of its loveliness
caught the man's gaze, and he watched her with a new respect,
born of appreciation for her feminine delightfulness. The
impression was far too brief. Gilder was not given to esthetic
raptures over women. Always, the business instinct was the
dominant. So, after the short period of amazed admiration over
such unexpected winsomeness, his thoughts flew back angrily to
the matters whereof she spoke so ridiculously.

"I don't care to discuss these things," he declared peremptorily,
as the girl remained silent for a moment.

"And I have no wish to discuss anything," Mary returned evenly.
"I only want to give you what you asked for--facts." A faint
smile of reminiscence curved the girl's lips. "When they first
locked me up," she explained, without any particular evidence of
emotion, "I used to sit and hate you."

"Oh, of course!" came the caustic exclamation from Gilder.

"And then, I thought that perhaps you did not understand," Mary
continued; "that, if I were to tell you how things really are, it
might be you would change them somehow."

At this ingenuous statement, the owner of the store gave forth a
gasp of sheer stupefaction.

"I!" he cried, incredulously. "I change my business policy
because you ask me to!"

There was something imperturbable in the quality of the voice as
the girl went resolutely forward with her explanation. It was as
if she were discharging a duty not to be gainsaid, not to be
thwarted by any difficulty, not even the realization that all the
effort must be ultimately in vain.

"Do you know how we girls live?--but, of course, you don't.
Three of us in one room, doing our own cooking over the
two-burner gas-stove, and our own washing and ironing evenings,
after being on our feet for nine hours."

The enumeration of the sordid details left the employer
absolutely unmoved, since he lacked the imagination necessary to
sympathize actually with the straining evil of a life such as the
girl had known. Indeed, he spoke with an air of just
remonstrance, as if the girl's charges were mischievously faulty.

"I have provided chairs behind the counters," he stated.

There was no especial change in the girl's voice as she answered
his defense. It continued musically low, but there was in it the
insistent note of sincerity.

"But have you ever seen a girl sitting in one of them?" she
questioned, coldly. "Please answer me. Have you? Of course
not," she said, after a little pause during which the owner had
remained silent. She shook her head in emphatic negation. "And
do you understand why? It's simply because every girl knows that
the manager of her department would think he could get along
without her, if he were to see her sitting down ----loafing, you
know! So, she would be discharged. All it amounts to is that,
after being on her feet for nine hours, the girl usually walks
home, in order to save carfare. Yes, she walks, whether sick or
well. Anyhow, you are generally so tired, it don't make much
difference which you are."

Gilder was fuming under these strictures, which seemed to him
altogether baseless attacks on himself. His exasperation steadily
waxed against the girl, a convicted felon, who thus had the
audacity to beard him.

"What has all this to do with the question of theft in the
store?" he rumbled, huffily. "That was the excuse for your
coming here. And, instead of telling me something, you rant
about gas-stoves and carfare."

The inexorable voice went on in its monotone, as if he had not
spoken.

"And, when you are really sick, and have to stop work, what are
you going to do then? Do you know, Mr. Gilder, that the first
time a straight girl steals, it's often because she had to have a
doctor--or some luxury like that? And some of them do worse than
steal. Yes, they do--girls that started straight, and wanted to
stay that way. But, of course, some of them get so tired of the


 


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