nd if it is good--and I am sure it is, for us at
least--it can wait until morning. Whichever it is, she needs a night's
sleep before she faces any new complication."

She took the envelope and looked at it again, and then at Frank Earl.
With a little laugh she clutched it to her bosom, and holding out the
other hand to him, she said, "Now, I'm ready to go to the kitchen and
cook anything there is to be found in this section of New York!"

"Carroll," he said, humbly, "would you mind if I proposed to you once
more? We seem to need you in our family."

CHAPTER XXI

SILVIA HOLLAND'S GREAT PLEA TO THE JURY

Hours before court time the next morning an immense crowd packed the
streets around the building, and when the doors were opened it was
useless to attempt the enforcement of the ticket rule. When the court
convened the space outside the rail was jammed with a crowd that
threatened to overflow the space inside which was reserved for members
of the legal profession, witnesses, and the family of the defendant. It
was an orderly crowd, however, and the tension of silence was so
complete that it held them in a kind of paralysis of attention when the
gavel fell and the stentorian voice of the bailiff called his "Hear ye."
As soon as he sat down the Court recognized Silvia. She took her place
at the end of the counsel table with a few papers within reach. The
district attorney noticed with satisfaction that they were very few. She
was gowned in pure white, and her hair rippled back from her broad
forehead, and with head proudly erect and with easy, natural pose, she
faced the jury, which gave her instant and absorbed attention. She spoke
slowly, deliberately, and her soft, musical voice was heard distinctly
in every corner of the courtroom.

"Gentlemen of the Jury: Human life is the greatest mystery in a universe
of mystery. It springs into existence with the knowledge of the ages
coursing through its sensibilities and inherently possessing all of the
passion and prejudice of countless centuries. Where it started none of
us knows. Where the aeons ahead of us destine it to end none of us can
tell. Deliberately to blot from this earth and its service that which
comes into the world so divinely equipped with knowledge and inspiration
requires both sublime courage and indescribable depravity; sublime
courage to invite the hostility of the vast, complicated, mysterious
forces that are embodied in a human life, however h