y. In her calling clothes she did
not look like a girl who would chum with motormen. His manner was
elaborately deferential.
"Miss Kirkwood, may I trouble you to tell the jury whether you ever rode
in the car of this particular motorman?" he asked.
"No, sir," replied Phil.
"You never saw him before, and after all you're not sure he's the man
who was in charge of that car that day, are you?"
Phil dangled the cardcase from her white-gloved fingers carelessly.
"Perfectly confident of it," she answered.
"If you are sure of it, will you kindly tell the jury just how it is you
remember him--how you identify him as the motorman on this car on that
particular afternoon?"
"Oh! Do you really want me to tell that?" asked Phil.
"Answer the question!" the attorney returned sharply, misreading her
apparent reluctance.
"Why," began Phil, speaking rapidly and distinctly and turning toward
the jurors,--"why, it's because I had noticed him all that summer
passing our house and he always ran faster than the other motormen,--you
could tell his car at night if you didn't see it because it ran so
fast,--and he's the same man who ran into Bernstein's delivery
wagon--the one with the lame horse--at the corner of Monon Street about
a week before the Fourth of July. I saw that, too!"
"If Your Honor please," said Waterman, rising as the court ruled that
Phil's last answer, which the defendant's counsel had sought vainly to
interrupt, should be stricken out, "the plaintiff rests. We will waive
argument in this case," he added impressively, putting from him, with
unprecedented self-denial, the chance of pillorying the unfeeling
defendant corporation.
Judge Walters looked down at Phil solemnly.
"The court is unable to determine whether the witness is also associate
counsel for plaintiff, but in any event, I suggest that she claim the
usual witness fee at the clerk's office."
Phil left the court-room and resumed her walk toward Buckeye Lane.
Paul Fosdick, just coming down from his office, arrested her. Fosdick,
whose blithe spirit was never greatly disturbed by the failure of his
enterprises, greeted Phil gayly. He entertained a high opinion of Phil.
At family gatherings, which his wife and sisters-in-law made odious by
petty bickerings, Phil was always a refuge. It was nothing to Phil which
of her aunts wore the best hat, or that Mrs. Hastings had been abroad
and to New York while the others had been denied these recre
|