Mrs. Balfame walked back through the now familiar tunnel more hopeful
and elated than any one in the courtroom would have inferred from her
chiselled manner.
"I almost feel that I have the courage to look at the sketches of myself
in the papers," she said lightly to Rush, who escorted her. "I haven't
dared open a paper since Monday morning."
"Better not." Rush also was in high spirits. "Keep your mental mercury
as high as possible. It doesn't matter, anyhow. You'll be clear in less
than a week. The impression all those splendid friends of yours created
knocked the prosecution silly."
"I have not once glanced at the jury," said Mrs. Balfame proudly, "and I
never shall. All I was conscious of was that they were chewing gum, and
that the man above me snorts constantly."
"That's Houston. He's likely to be predisposed in your favour on account
of your intimacy with Dr. Anna. And he's a just man, of some
intelligence. I fancy none of them is in the mood to be too hard on any
one, for they are having a fine vacation in the Paradise City Hotel.
Each has a big room with a soft bed and rich and delicate food three
times a day. If they don't get indigestion they will be inclined to
mercy on general principles. I engineered the housing of them. Gore was
all for putting them up at the Dobton Inn, where they would have grown
as vicious as starved dogs. I won my point by reminding him that certain
men of that sort try to get on a jury for the sake of having a rest and
a soft time, and if they aren't coddled, they are equal to falling ill
and forcing the court to begin the trial over again. You're all right."
They were in the jail sitting-room, and she stood with her head thrown
back and her eyes shining. The moment they had entered she had removed
her heavy hat and veil and run her hands through her crushed hair. Rush,
who was very nervous and excited, made a swift motion forward as if to
seize her hands. But it was only later, when alone, that she realised
that possibly she had brushed aside an opportunity to rekindle a flame
which she alternately feared and doubted was burning low; she was not
thinking of him and exclaimed happily:
"It is quite a wonderful sensation to feel that you have made friends
like that. My! how they did lie! And so convincingly! For a moment I was
quite the outsider and deeply impressed with the weakness of the case
against the accused. Here they come. I feel as if I never really loved
them before." And she ran to the door to admit the elated trio who that
day had made their noblest sacrifice to the cause of friendship. Mrs.
Balfame kissed them and embraced them, and dried their excited tears,
while Rush, his contemptible part in the day's drama forgotten, slunk
down the stairs and out of the jail.
He met Alys Crumley as she was about to board the trolley for Elsinore,
and she stepped back and congratulated him warmly.
"Your brain worked like blades of chain lightning," she said with real
enthusiasm. "I know you have only begun, but I can well imagine--wasn't
Mrs. Balfame delighted?"
"With her friends' testimony," he replied gloomily. "I don't seem to
come in."
There are some impulses, born of sudden opportunity, too strong for
mortal powers of resistance. "Come home to supper," said Miss Crumley,
with the same spontaneous warmth. "You look so tired, and Mother
promised me Maryland chicken and waffles. Besides, I want to show you my
drawings. I am so proud of being a staff artist."
"I'll come," said Rush promptly.