The Long Lane's Turning

ructure of red brick on the selvedge of the southern suburb, set in a grove of maple trees facing

oth the frivolous and athletic; its monthly dances were the gayest of the season's informal functions and on Saturday evenings its row of little dining-r

in the fashionable rector of St. Andrews in clerical dress relieved only by the tiny amethyst cross that swung upon his waistcoat-in Senator Peyton, party-w

he distinction lay deep in the mental formula of the man: it was not to be perceived in externals. To-night, in his faultless evening-dress, with his keen, strong face and assured manner, he had an air even of distinction that well became him, and the instant's painful embarrassment tha

n passingly attracted-his tastes had been catholic enough in that regard! But he had never seen one whom he had wished to marry. He had spoken truly when he said that the women he had known had really meant nothing to him. His licenses had been but incidents after all. They had not ministered to the mental side of his nature, whereas this passion had t

the small-talk of his partner, Nancy Langham, in a gown of pale gauze that made her look like a small, eager tiger-l

and a power in the community, I believe. Our hostess is wearing the new wave; it costs a lot, but they say it's guaranteed to last six months. And to think," she sighed, "that Melissa, my maid, spends a do

ne here who isn't any

because I'm frivolous. I'm supposed to offse

ness is not to fall in arrears. Down at the o

ine between her eye and the candle-light, which splashed a bright

eat maketh my brother to offend,' you know." He pointed to his wine-glass, which,

Echo. "It seems to b

d, "but it's coming to be

sterner course. But for those of us who don't think it wrong, the other arguments seem so-so local. I suppose drinking does keep the negroes from doing as much work as they might, but it's h

are just the qualities that men in the mass lack. When a weak man falls our system keeps him down. I once heard Thomas Malcolm-every one here knows of him and his work, I presume-say that for the average drunkard to reform with a saloon on every corner is about as easy as to hoist one's-self out of hell by one's boot-straps. I'm inclined to think he is right. And I never sa

fan had begun to flutter-a sign of agitation. For Cameron Craig's affiliations with the great Trust were well-known, though presumably n

trace of irony, "that the statistics of crime would be ma

They would be practically wiped out. There wouldn't be enough lef

the state has always been 'wet,' exact dat

g now to Treadwell, "that it is the experience of every criminal lawyer that liquor, in som

in criminal cases," he said, "but I should think

of course is a superficial one. It is a pity that Harry

tess. "Though Mr. Sevier couldn't come to

Sevier! I heard him

ave up an auction-bridge for it, and I w

fted to safe ground. "He lost the case, I hear," she sai

plied judicially. "I confess, though, I had rather expe

do what he has done so often-but didn't to-day. Oh," she exclaimed almost a

"And I should think it might have had its effect on the jur

iminal trials, but from where I sat I could see the man he was defending. He looked so hopeless and-scared! I wanted to stand up and scream across

held a rising flush. She looked across at the rector

n isn't so far afield. I presume the man had c

nation of circumstance, the brilliant freeing of truth and innocence from entangling error and maleficent scheming. But if this man was guilty and Harry had known it beyond question, what other outcome had been possible? At the moment she saw in that

of the trial darted to his mind. A cool, keen certainty rushed through him. Sevier! Fool that he was not to have thought of him before! This young flaneur-and drunkard!-this petty tr

client is a very grave one. He owes none toward the commonwealth-the state's attorney takes care of

le for Sevier's method of defenc

long oval damask with its glistening silver and baskets of brilliant fruit, its leaf thin glasses with languid beads rising in their liquid amber

een in their cups, and self-defence seemed an adequate plea. Acquittal was regarded as fairly certain-the more so as the District Attorney was the bosom-friend of the accused man, and everybody knew it. There was almost no attempt at evidence, which didn't seem surprising under the circumstances, and the state made the baldest farce of its cross-examination. The real interest came after a rather long recess

y for her. In the few words he had, with apparent unintention, sketched the actual scene in the court-room of the day before, and while reversing its elements, was picturi

r that he had been asleep. A laugh went round and the sheriff put a hand on his shoulder and shook him. He got up, looking confused, and while he blinked at the candles, some one in the a

leaning forward intently. Treadwell was frowning at his plate. No one spoke;

he man was by nature a marvellous actor-he would have made his fortune on any stage. At first it seemed as if he didn't know quite where he was, but then the ballad itself gripped him and he rendered it, acting each line,

ced men set o

e rain and

Aram walk

s upon hi

gasped Nancy Langham. "I don'

ut of the court-room witho

im. "They found him guilty!

es

t Attorney was his best

was

anted to c

head. "No, I d

, "do you take it, inspired him

e he looked full at Echo. "It all came out afterward

r whole being flooded with fierce resentment, mingled with an angry amaze that of all there no one else seemed to have caught the insinuation. To the rest it had been at most a gaucherie, a parallel which, if perhaps not felicitous, had been without significance and w

bble the senator emerged with a negro story about a trial with "exterminatin' circumstanc

of masculine segars mingled with the dewed scent of shrubbery. Here in the increasing numbers, unobserved as she thought, Echo stepped down onto the cool dark turf and following one of the little meandering bush-bordered paths, came to a rustic bench over

broken. A step sounded on the path, and sh