ce. "And a young good-looking prisoner will make it harder yet."
His eyes seemed to go straight to my thoughts. "Ellie, I can depend
upon you, can't I?"

I was glad I could say, in quite a steady voice, "Oh, yes, yes!"

He smiled. "Of course I should have known without asking. Now don't
fret about it. To bed, to bed, to bed! We shall have to be up early
to-morrow if we are to be in court by nine o'clock."

He was smiling, as he said this, with his old gaiety, but I suspected
he was only putting it on to cheer me, as I now understand Senora
Mendez had done when she had taken me shopping.

After I got up-stairs I couldn't sleep. At about ten o'clock I heard
the door-bell ring, then long heavy steps going down the hall, and the
shutting of a door which I guessed to be the door of the study. That
was odd; father seldom had visitors so late. I tossed and tossed. I
kept trying to picture the court room. I saw it as a vast place, with
a cold chilly light, like the hall of the prison, filled with a surging
mob of people; serried rows of lawyers all in white wigs--the memory of
some English pictures--and a terrible judge in a black gown, calling
out my name. Suppose, even with the best I could do, I should make a
mistake; forget something, or, what would be much worse, remember
something wrongly!

I realized that I was hearing voices with remarkable clearness. I was
able to recognize father's and Mr. Dingley's, and they seemed to be
talking just beneath my window. Then it occurred to me that, since the
evening was mild, the window of the study, which was just beneath my
room, must be open. The sound of those voices worried me; Mr.
Dingley's was louder than common, and there were times when both seemed
to speak at once. I got up softly and going to my window very
noiselessly closed it. Then, so that I should not be quite stifled for
air, I set the door into the hall wide. It opened outward, so that I
had to step out on the landing. Just as I did so, I heard the study
door flung open, quick steps in the hall, and there, from that part of
the hall directly beneath the landing, Mr. Dingley's voice:

"Oh, that's just your supersensitive conscience! There was no need of
bringing the child up to town. There's enough circumstantial evidence
to convict ten men of whatever guilt there is."

Then father--"Yes, and I thought you had enough to convict one--that is
I did last week. But this new development,--this