d, would he forget
that girl's laugh. It was into the face of our whole hideous Society
that she hurled that bitter laugh.

Then his girl was brought in. He saw her clearly for the first time. A
thin, wizened little face, framed in curly red hair, with bright,
birdlike eyes. Her thin, flat child's figure was outlined in a tight,
black satin dress, with a red collar and sash. Her quick glance darted
to him, and she smiled. The policeman made his charge. The judge
glanced at her.

"Anything to say for yourself?"

She shook her head wearily. Jarvis was out of his seat before he
thought.

"I have something to say for her. I am the man she was supposed to have
approached."

"Silence in the courtroom," said the judge, sternly.

"She didn't say one word to me, except 'Good evening,'" shouted Jarvis.

"Is that the man?" the judge asked the officer.

"Yes. He's made a lot of trouble, too, trying to make me arrest him."

"If you have any evidence to give in this case, come to the front and be
sworn in."

Jarvis jumped the railing and stood before him. The oath was
administered.

"Now, tell me, briefly, what the girl said to you."

"She said, 'Hello, kid!'"

A titter went over the courtroom. The clerk rapped for order.

"Then what happened?"

"This officer arrested her. I told him what had passed between us, and
insisted on being arrested, too. We said the same thing, the girl
and I."

"The girl has been here before. She has a record."

"Where are the men she made the record with?" demanded Jarvis.

"We do not deal with that feature of it," replied the judge, turning to
the officer.

"And why not?" demanded Jarvis. "It takes a solicitor and the solicited
to make a crime. What kind of laws are these which hound women into the
trade and hound them for following it?"

"It is neither the time nor the place to discuss that. The case is
dismissed. This court has no time to waste, Flynn, in cases where
there's no evidence," he added, sternly, to the detective.

The girl nodded to Jarvis and beckoned him, but instead of following her
he went back to his seat. He would follow this ghastly puppet show
to its end.

At a word from the judge a tall, handsome, gray-haired woman approached
the bench. She wore no hat, and Jarvis marked her broad brow and
pleasant smile and the wise, philosophic eyes. Her face looked cheerful
and normal in this place of abnormalities.

"Who is that woman?" Jarvis asked his neighbour