the court-room, which had been growing more and more jaded under the process of the accusations and condemnations. The soddenest _habitué_ of the place brightened; the lawyers and policemen eased themselves in their chairs, and I fancied that the judge himself relaxed. I could not refuse my sympathy to the general content; I took another respite from the thought of my poor thief, and I too lent myself to the hope of enjoyment from this Laughable After-piece. The accuser also wore black, but her fashionableness, as compared with that of the defendant, was as the fashionableness of Boston to that of New York; she had studied a subdued elegance, and she wore a crape veil instead of flowers on her hat. She was of a sort of dusky pallor, and her features had not the Congoish fullness nor her skin the brilliancy of the defendant’s. Her taste in kid gloves was a decorous black. She testified that she was employed as second-girl in a respectable family, and that the day before she had received a visit at the door from the defendant, who had invited her to come down the street to a certain point, and be beaten within an inch of her life. On her failure to appear, the defendant came again, and notified her that she should hold the beating in store for her, and bestow it whenever she caught her out-of-doors. These visits and threats had terrified the plaintiff, and annoyed the respectable family with which she lived, and she had invoked the law. During the delivery of her complaint, the defendant had been lifting and lowering herself by the bar at which she stood, in anticipation of the judge’s permission to question the plaintiff. At a nod from him she now flung herself half across it. “What’d I say I’d whip you _for_?” _The Plaintiff_, thoughtfully: “What’d you say you’d whip me for?” _The Defendant_, beating the railing with her hand: “Yes, that’s what I ast you: what _for_?” _The Plaintiff_, with dignity: “I don’t know as you told me what for.” _The Defendant_: “Now, now, none o’ that! You just answer my question.” _The Judge_: “She has answered it.” _The Defendant_, after a moment of surprise: “Well, then, I’ll ast her another question. Didn’t I tell you if I ever caught you goin’ to a ball with my husband ag’in I’d”-- _The Plaintiff_: “I didn’t go to no ball with your husband!” _The Defendant_: “You didn’t go with him! Ah”-- _The Plaintiff_: “I went with the crowd. I didn’t know who I went with.” _The Defendant_: “Well, I know who paid fifty cents for your ticket! Why don’t he give me any of his money? Hain’t spent fifty cents on me or his child, there, since it was born. An’ he goes with you all the time,--to church, and everywhere.” _The Judge_: “That will do.”