“You might cut them,” said the judge. “That would be wasteful and foolish, sir. No one would be the gainer, and no one would be satisfied. I will unravel them--with Sappha’s help.” “Well, Leonard,”--this time the name was spoken a little more pleasantly--“well, Leonard, I can tell you there is an ugly tangle up the street for you either to cut, or to unravel. And I must say, I am astonished, not to say displeased, at your neglecting it for three days.” “A tangle up the street, sir,--a tangle I have neglected!” “You certainly have not forgotten your quarrel with Horace Gilson?” “Oh, I had no quarrel with the fellow! How could I? He was drunk.” “Not too drunk to tell you that you had only three months’ worth of patriotism; not too drunk to bid you buy a little dog-courage with your dirty dollars. Sir, you ought to have stopped such remarks as quickly as they were made--yes, sir, they ought to have been stopped peremptorily, whether they were drunk or sober remarks.” “But, judge, you cannot talk to a drunken man--you cannot reason with a drunken man----” “Well, then, you can knock him down. That is an argument even a drunken man will understand.” “Father!” cried Sappha with indignation, as she stood with flashing eyes before him. “Father, to knock a drunken man down would be as bad as to knock an insane man down. In both cases it would be brutal.” “When men make themselves into brutes it is just to treat them like brutes.” “I never heard such nonsense! such cruel nonsense! I think Leonard did quite right to ignore the fellow.” “You have no business, miss, to think anything about such subjects. Go to your mother.” “Mother went to Nassau Street long ago.” “I want her. Tell her to come home immediately. And I do not want you. It is necessary for me to speak to Leonard alone.” “Very well. I shall go for mother.” But ere she left the room she took Leonard’s hands in hers and kissed him. There was a whispered word also, which the judge did not hear, but the girl’s act of sympathy was irritating enough. He drew his lips wide and tight, and as soon as Sappha closed the door he said: “Now, sir, what are you going to do? Gilson has been vapouring from Dan to Beersheba about your--cowardice, and your want of patriotism; and Mr. Ogden told me that when he instanced your frequent generous loans to the city Gilson laughed and said you had made forty per cent. on them. ‘You and your father,’ he added, ‘were both canny Scots, and knew cleverly how to rub one dollar into two.’” “Judge, my father----” “Wait a little. Why have you not been in any of your usual resorts since Wednesday night? It does not look right--the rascal has had a clear field for all the scurrilous lies he chose to tell.”