SHUFFLING BUREAU |
| DIRECTOR Bela Melangele |
ABOUT
After a little whispering between the clerk and an officer wl^> was very busy in shuffling papers, although it had been announced that there would be " no more trials," business again proceeded. In a few minutes the door of the lock-room was opened, and Kate entered, accompanied by an officer. She was thinly clad, and her pale face was partly concealed by a shawl. The complaint was hurriedly read. It charged her with the crime of larceny. When she first stepped upon the platform allotted to prisoners, either from a belief that she should be acquitted, or from a desire to exhibit fortitude and daring, she assumed a look of indifference, smiled, and tossed her head haughtily.
" What have you to say ?" asked the Court, glancing at the clock as he spoke. The girl hesitated.
" Nothing to say," observed the officer in attendance.
" Very well," said the Judge. " Has she been here before ?"
" Yes, your honor, two years ago," replied a watchman who was interested. " I don't exactly remember the case, but I recollect her perfectly."
" No, please your honor," said the prisoner, in a tremulous voice. " I was never here before. I was not in the city two years ago." .
" Your honor," rejoined the petty officer, insultingly, " the girl does not tell the truth."
" The clerk can tell by looking at the records," said the Judge, who was really a humane man, and evidently felt a spark of sympathy for the prisoner. " She don't look like a very bad girl," he continued, as he looked over his spectacles into her face.
" Yes, here is her name," said the clerk. " She was sentenced two years ago this very month, as a common drunkard."
" Yes, your honor," obsequiously chimed in a watchman, " she was abusive to her husband and children."
" Well, girl, how is that ?"
" It is false, sir, I am not married," said the prisoner.
" How dare you contradict a watchman ? " whispered one of the witnesses, who had been called for the government.
" Well, now, I don't know about all this. You say she has been up here before, and she says she has not. Why can't you^both tell one story ?"