races of her crime,
she returned with the merchant to the inn and administered poison to
him.

When the prosecutor had finished his speech, a middle-aged man, in a
dress coat and wide semi-circle of starched shirt front, rose from the
lawyer's bench, and boldly began to deliver a speech in defense of
Kartinkin and Bochkova. He was a lawyer hired by them for three
hundred rubles. He declared them both innocent, and threw all the
blame on Maslova.

He belittled the deposition of Maslova relating to the presence of
Bochkova and Kartinkin when she took the money, and insisted that, as
she had confessed to poisoning the merchant, her evidence could have
no weight. The twenty-five hundred rubles could have been earned by
two hard working and honest persons, who were receiving in tips three
to four rubles a day from guests. The merchant's money was stolen by
Maslova, who either gave it to some one for safe keeping, or lost it,
which was not unlikely, as she was not in a normal condition. The
poisoning was done by Maslova alone.

For these reasons he asked the jury to acquit Kartinkin and Bochkova
of stealing the money; or, if they found them guilty of stealing he
asked for a verdict of theft, but without participation in the
poisoning, and without conspiracy.

In conclusion, this lawyer made a thrust at the prosecuting attorney
by remarking that, although the splendid reasonings of the prosecutor
on heredity explain the scientific questions of heredity, they hardly
hold good in the case of Bochkova, since her parentage was unknown.

The prosecutor, growling, began to make notes, and shrugged his
shoulders in contemptuous surprise.

Next rose Maslova's lawyer, and timidly and falteringly began his
speech in her defense. Without denying that Maslova participated in
the theft, he insisted that she had no intention of poisoning
Smelkoff, but gave him the powder in order to make him sleep. When he
described Maslova's unfortunate life, telling how she had been drawn
into a life of vice by a man who went unpunished, while she was left
to bear the whole burden of her fall, he attempted to become eloquent,
but his excursion into the domain of psychology failed, so that
everybody felt awkward. When he began to mutter about man's cruelty
and woman's helplessness, the justiciary, desiring to help him, asked
him to confine himself to the facts of the case.

After this lawyer had finished the prosecutor rose again and defended
his