head erect and her eyes flashing, she stood between the weeping
girl and the black-coated judge, and everybody could see the swelling and
heaving of her bosom.

"How dare you!" she cried. "You say you have been taught to think of a
woman as sweet and pure. Well, _I_ have been taught to think of a _man_
as strong and brave, and tender and merciful to every living creature,
but most of all to a woman, if she is erring and fallen. But you are not
brave and tender; you are cruel and cowardly, and I despise you and hate
you!"

The men at the tables were rising from their seats.

"Oh, you have discharged my friend," she said, "and you may discharge me,
too, if you like--if you _dare_! But I will tell everybody that it was
because I would not let you insult a poor girl with a cruel and shameful
name, and trample upon her when she was down. And everybody will believe
me, because it is the truth; and anything else you may say will be a lie,
and all the world will know it!"

The matron was shambling up also.

"How dare you, miss! Go back to your ward this instant! Do you know whom
you are speaking to?"

"Oh, it's not the first time I've spoken to a clergyman, ma'am. I'm the
daughter of a clergyman, and the granddaughter of a clergyman, and I know
what a clergyman is when he is brave and good, and gentle and merciful to
all women, and when he is a man and a gentleman--not a Pharisee and a
crocodile!"

"Please take that girl away," said the chairman.

But John Storm was by her side in a moment.

"No, sir," he said, "nobody shall do that."

But now Glory had broken down too, and the girls, like two lost children,
were crying on each other's breasts. John opened the door and led them up
to it.

"Take your friend to her room, nurse: I shall be with you presently."

Then he turned back to the chairman, still holding the crumpled pamphlet
in his hand, and said calmly and respectfully:

"And now that you have finished with the woman, sir, may I ask what you
intend to do with the man?"

"What man?"

"Though I did not feel myself qualified to sit in judgment on the broken
heart of a fallen girl, I happen to know the name which she was forbidden
to mention, and I find it here, sir--here in your list of subscribers and
governors."

"Well, what of it?"

"You have wiped the girl out of your books, sir. Now I ask you to wipe
the man out also."

"Gentlemen," said the chairman, rising, "the business of the board is at
an