f to wave his hand genially to a man who was walking slowly
by the door on his way down to the dining-room.

"There!" he went on to Rose. "That's what I mean! That's Judge Granger
of the Supreme Court of this state. He's come here regularly for meals,
when he ain't in Springfield, for the last fifteen years. He's the
biggest man in this county. Do you suppose he'd stand for it, if I asked
him to give his order to a busted actress?"

"Would you stand for it if he did?" demanded Rose. "If he told you that
I was all right and asked you to give me a job, would you do it?"

The proprietor laughed impatiently. "What's the good of talking
nonsense?" he demanded. "Yes, I would, if that'll satisfy you. But you'd
better take the next train for Chicago. And if ..." He hesitated,
stroked his mustache again with his under-lip, and went on,--"Oh, I
suppose I'm a damned fool, but if a couple of dollars will help you
out ..."

"No, thank you," said Rose. "I'm going to see the judge." And she cut
off John Culver's exclamation of protest by walking out of the office.

Rose went back to the desk, told the clerk she wanted dinner, and
forestalled the objection she saw him preparing to make, by laying a
dollar bill on the counter. He even hesitated a little over that, but
he took it and gave her a quarter in change.

"That'll be all right," he said, and she went the way the judge had
gone, down the corridor to the dining-room. A glance showed her where he
sat, and without waiting for the assistance of the head waitress, she
chose a chair near the door, facing it, and with her back to the judge.

Those were rather audacious tactics. Seventy-five cents, in the present
state of her finances, was a good deal to squander on a meal. And the
fact that she was openly stalking the judge might lead John Culver to
give his honored patron a word of warning. But Rose didn't care. No
tactics but the simplest and most direct appealed to her. When the judge
finished his dinner, she would follow him to his office, wherever it
might be, walk in with him, and demand a hearing. If he were forewarned,
she would find some other way of getting access to him.

But, whether the proprietor was really ignorant of her plan, or whether
the little scene with her in his office had shaken him so that he didn't
care to try conclusions with her again, the judge was left to his fate.
Rose followed him, unmolested, down the corridor and out into the
street, across the