affections, and the innocent girl is leaning from her casement.
Presently there appears upon the road a slinking, stealthy figure, the
defendant on his way to church. True to the instruction she has received
from him, her lips part in the musical utterance" (the Colonel lowered
his voice in a faint falsetto, presumably in fond imitation of his
fair client), "'Keeree!' Instantly the night becomes resonant with the
impassioned reply" (the Colonel here lifted his voice in stentorian
tones), "'Kee-row.' Again, as he passes, rises the soft 'Keeree;' again,
as his form is lost in the distance, comes back the deep 'Keerow.'"

A burst of laughter, long, loud, and irrepressible, struck the whole
court-room, and before the Judge could lift his half-composed face
and take his handkerchief from his mouth, a faint "Keeree" from some
unrecognized obscurity of the court-room was followed by a loud "Keerow"
from some opposite locality. "The Sheriff will clear the court," said
the Judge sternly; but, alas! as the embarrassed and choking officials
rushed hither and thither, a soft "Keeree" from the spectators at
the window, OUTSIDE the court-house, was answered by a loud chorus of
"Keerows" from the opposite windows, filled with onlookers. Again
the laughter arose everywhere,--even the fair plaintiff herself sat
convulsed behind her handkerchief.

The figure of Colonel Starbottle alone remained erect--white and rigid.
And then the Judge, looking up, saw--what no one else in the court had
seen--that the Colonel was sincere and in earnest; that what he had
conceived to be the pleader's most perfect acting and most elaborate
irony were the deep, serious, mirthless CONVICTIONS of a man without the
least sense of humor. There was the respect of this conviction in
the Judge's voice as he said to him gently, "You may proceed, Colonel
Starbottle."