ne of the interested listeners and spectators at this point was Edward
Malia Butler, who had just stepped in from another courtroom where he
had been talking to a judge. An obsequious court attendant had warned
him that Cowperwood was about to be sentenced. He had really come here
this morning in order not to miss this sentence, but he cloaked his
motive under the guise of another errand. He did not know that Aileen
was there, nor did he see her.

"As he himself testified at the time of his trial," went on Steger, "and
as the evidence clearly showed, he was never more than an agent for the
gentleman whose offense was subsequently adjudicated by this court;
and as an agent he still maintains, and two-fifths of the State Supreme
Court agree with him, that he was strictly within his rights and
privileges in not having deposited the sixty thousand dollars' worth of
city loan certificates at the time, and in the manner which the people,
acting through the district attorney, complained that he should have. My
client is a man of rare financial ability. By the various letters which
have been submitted to your honor in his behalf, you will see that he
commands the respect and the sympathy of a large majority of the
most forceful and eminent men in his particular world. He is a man of
distinguished social standing and of notable achievements. Only the
most unheralded and the unkindest thrust of fortune has brought him
here before you today--a fire and its consequent panic which involved a
financial property of the most thorough and stable character. In spite
of the verdict of the jury and the decision of three-fifths of the State
Supreme Court, I maintain that my client is not an embezzler, that he
has not committed larceny, that he should never have been convicted,
and that he should not now be punished for something of which he is not
guilty.

"I trust that your honor will not misunderstand me or my motives when I
point out in this situation that what I have said is true. I do not wish
to cast any reflection on the integrity of the court, nor of any court,
nor of any of the processes of law. But I do condemn and deplore the
untoward chain of events which has built up a seeming situation,
not easily understood by the lay mind, and which has brought my
distinguished client within the purview of the law. I think it is but
fair that this should be finally and publicly stated here and now. I
ask that your honor be lenient, and that