to descend. Lights were appearing in
the city. The two persons had come in from the Criminal Court after the
session for the day had ended.

The woman seemed bewildered. She looked at the man with the curious
expression of a child that does not comprehend and is afraid to ask for
an explanation.

"If we had any more money," she said, "I would bring it to you, but the
hundred dollars was all we had."

Then she began to explain, reiterating minute details. When the tragedy
occurred and her husband was arrested by the police they had a small
sum painfully saved up. It was now wholly gone. Like persons in profound
misery, she repeated. The man halted the recital with a brutal gesture.

"I'll not discuss it," he said. "You can bring the money in here before
the court convenes in the morning, or I withdraw from the case."

He went over to the file, took out a packet of legal papers and threw
them on the table.

"All right, my lady!" he said, "perhaps you think your husband can get
along without a lawyer. Perhaps you think the devil will save him, or
heaven, or Cinderella in a pumpkin coach!" There was biting irony in the
bitter words.

A sudden comprehension began to appear in the woman's face. She realized
now what the man was driving at. The expression in her face deepened
into a sort of wonder, a sort of horror.

"You think he's guilty!" she said. "You think we got the money and we're
trying to keep it, to hide it."

The lawyer turned about, put both hands on the table and leaned across
it. He looked the woman in the face.

"Never mind what I believe; you heard what I said!"

For a moment the woman did not move. Then she got up slowly and went
out. In the street she seemed lost. She remained for some time before
the entrance of the building. Night had now arrived. Crowds of people
were passing, intent on their affairs, unconcerned. No one seemed to see
the figure motionless in the shadow of the great doorway.

Presently the woman began to walk along the street in the crowd without
giving any attention to the people about her or to the direction she was
taking. She was in that state of mental coma which attends persons in
despair. She neither felt nor appreciated anything and she continued to
walk in the direction in which the crowd was moving.

Some block in the traffic checked the crowd and the woman stopped. The
block cleared and the human tide drifted on, but the woman remained. The
crowd edged her over