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 tively. "Dorothy was always so hard. Even when we were little, though I was older, she used to find fault with me on ethical grounds. I couldn't go to Dorothy—" The lady was stopped by a fit of coughing. Then she said, with her wide, trembling smile:

"You see? I had to come to somebody, and I chose you, because I know that even if you are g-g-gruff—"

"I hope," said the judge, hastily, "that this cough is nothing serious."

"Oh, but it is!" she said. "I have had it three years. We were barn-storming with 'Julius Cæsar'—doing one-night stands in the country towns—I was Cæsar's wife—"

Judge Tyler could not explain why it suddenly and quite inapplicably occurred to him that Cæsar's wife was above suspicion.

"And I caught cold—this cold—and so I have come to you to ask a great, great service—I am afraid an impossible service."

The Judge bowed.