totally unprepared for this and a shiver ran down his spine
when he saw Howe, his face apparently surcharged with emotion,
turn suddenly towards his client and roughly thrust away her
hands. As he did so he embedded his finger-nails in her
cheeks, and the girl uttered an involuntary scream of nervous
terror and pain that made the jury turn cold.

"Look, gentlemen! Look in this poor creature's face! Does
she look like a guilty woman? No! A thousand times no!
Those are the tears of innocence and shame! Send her back to
her aged father to comfort his old age! Let him clasp her in
his arms and press his trembling lips to her hollow eyes! Let
him wipe away her tears and bid her sin no more!"

The jury acquitted, and Wellman, aghast, followed them
downstairs to inquire how such a thing were possible. The
jurors said that they had agreed to disclose nothing of their
deliberations.

"But," explained Wellman, "you see, in a way I am your
attorney, and I want to know how to do better next time. She
had offered to plead guilty if she could get off with twenty
years!"

The abashed jury slunk downstairs in silence and the secret of
their deliberations remains as yet untold.

In spite of such cases, where guilty women have been acquitted
through maudlin sentiment or in response to popular clamor,
nothing could be more erroneous than the idea that few women