The judge was an honorable man, concerned to accomplish justice
and not always misled by an obvious intent. The proceeding did
not please him, but he knew that no benefit, rather a continued
injury, would result to the prisoner by forcing the attorney to
go on with a case which it was evident that he no longer cared to
make any effort to support. He permitted the man to withdraw.
Then he spoke to the prisoner.
"Have you any other counsel?" he asked.
The prisoner did not look up. He replied in a low, almost
inaudible voice.
"No, Your Honor," he said.
"Then I shall appoint some one to go on with the case," and he
looked up over the docket before him and out at the few attorneys
sitting within the rail.
It was at this moment that the woman, crying silently, without a
sound and without moving in her chair, heard behind her the voice
which she had heard the evening before, when, as now, at the
bottom of the pit, she stood before the shutter of the
shop-window.
"Will it be necessary, monsieur le judge?"
It was the same wonderful, moving, heavenly voice. Every sound
in the court-room suddenly ceased.
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