very
shrewd and canny to them. It was very cold, and both men wore long,
dark, bluish-gray overcoats, cut in the latest mode. Cowperwood was
given to small boutonnieres in fair weather, but to-day he wore none.
His tie, however, was of heavy, impressive silk, of lavender hue,
set with a large, clear, green emerald. He wore only the thinnest of
watch-chains, and no other ornament of any kind. He always looked jaunty
and yet reserved, good-natured, and yet capable and self-sufficient.
Never had he looked more so than he did to-day.

He at once took in the nature of the scene, which had a peculiar
interest for him. Before him was the as yet empty judge's rostrum, and
at its right the empty jury-box, between which, and to the judge's left,
as he sat facing the audience, stood the witness-chair where he must
presently sit and testify. Behind it, already awaiting the arrival of
the court, stood a fat bailiff, one John Sparkheaver whose business it
was to present the aged, greasy Bible to be touched by the witnesses in
making oath, and to say, "Step this way," when the testimony was over.
There were other bailiffs--one at the gate giving into the railed space
before the judge's desk, where prisoners were arraigned, lawyers sat
or pleaded, the defendant had a chair, and so on; another in the aisle
leading to the jury-room, and still another guarding the door by which
the public entered. Cowperwood surveyed Stener, who was one of the
witnesses, and who now, in his helpless fright over his own fate, was
without malice toward any one. He had really never borne any. He wished
if anything now that he had followed Cowperwood's advice, seeing where
he now was, though he still had faith that Mollenhauer and the political
powers represented by him would do something for him with the governor,
once he was sentenced. He was very pale and comparatively thin. Already
he had lost that ruddy bulk which had been added during the days of
his prosperity. He wore a new gray suit and a brown tie, and was
clean-shaven. When his eye caught Cowperwood's steady beam, it faltered
and drooped. He rubbed his ear foolishly. Cowperwood nodded.

"You know," he said to Steger, "I feel sorry for George. He's such a
fool. Still I did all I could."

Cowperwood also watched Mrs. Stener out of the tail of his eye--an
undersized, peaked, and sallow little woman, whose clothes fitted her
abominably. It was just like Stener to marry a woman like that, he
thought.