uch indifference. What we need is a higher and purer political
morality--a state of public opinion which would make the improper use of
public money a thing to be execrated. It was the lack of this which made
your offense possible. Beyond that I see nothing of extenuation in your
case." Judge Payderson paused for emphasis. He was coming to his finest
flight, and he wanted it to sink in.

"The people had confided to you the care of their money," he went on,
solemnly. "It was a high, a sacred trust. You should have guarded the
door of the treasury even as the cherubim protected the Garden of Eden,
and should have turned the flaming sword of impeccable honesty
against every one who approached it improperly. Your position as the
representative of a great community warranted that.

"In view of all the facts in your case the court can do no less than
impose a major penalty. The seventy-fourth section of the Criminal
Procedure Act provides that no convict shall be sentenced by the court
of this commonwealth to either of the penitentiaries thereof, for
any term which shall expire between the fifteenth of November and the
fifteenth day of February of any year, and this provision requires me to
abate three months from the maximum of time which I would affix in your
case--namely, five years. The sentence of the court is, therefore, that
you pay a fine of five thousand dollars to the commonwealth for the use
of the county"--Payderson knew well enough that Stener could never pay
that sum--"and that you undergo imprisonment in the State Penitentiary
for the Eastern District, by separate and solitary confinement at
labor, for the period of four years and nine months, and that you stand
committed until this sentence is complied with." He laid down the briefs
and rubbed his chin reflectively while both Cowperwood and Stener were
hurried out. Butler was the first to leave after the sentence--quite
satisfied. Seeing that all was over so far as she was concerned, Aileen
stole quickly out; and after her, in a few moments, Cowperwood's father
and brothers. They were to await him outside and go with him to the
penitentiary. The remaining members of the family were at home eagerly
awaiting intelligence of the morning's work, and Joseph Cowperwood was
at once despatched to tell them.

The day had now become cloudy, lowery, and it looked as if there might
be snow. Eddie Zanders, who had been given all the papers in the case,
announced that the