Mr. FOLLETT: I think there is no question but that we should hold the defendant in contempt. Mrs. ATHERTON: Mutual, I assure you. (_She sweeps out of the room and a large section of the public quietly follows her._) CLERK PHELPS: Joseph Hergesheimer to the bar! (_A short, stocky fellow with twinkling eyes steps forward._) Mr. Hergesheimer? Mr. HERGESHEIMER: Right. Mr. REEDY: Good boy, Joe! Mr. FOLLETT: It won’t do, it won’t do at all. There’s only _The Three Black Pennys and Gold and Iron_ and a novel called _Java Head_ to go by. _Saturday Evening Post._ And bewilderingly unlike each other. Seem artistic but are too popular, I fancy, really to be sound. Mr. HERGESHEIMER: With all respect, I should like to ask whether this is a court of record? Mr. HOWELLS: It is. Mr. HERGESHEIMER: In that case I think I shall press for a verdict which may be very helpful to me. I should like also to have the members of the court on record respecting my work. Mr. BOYNTON: Just as I feared. My dear fellow, while we should like to be helpful and will endeavor to give you advice to that end it must be done unobtrusively ... current reviews ... we’ll compare your work with that of Hawthorne and Hardy or perhaps a standard Frenchman. That will give you something to work for. But you cannot expect us to say anything definite about you at this stage of your work. Suppose we were to say what we really think, or what some really think, that you are the most promising writer in America to-day, promising in the sense that you have most of your work before you and in the sense that your work is both popular and artistically fine. Don’t you see the risk? Mr. HERGESHEIMER: I do, and I also see that you would make your own reputation much more than you would make mine. I write a story. I risk everything with that story. You deliver a verdict. Why shouldn’t you take a decent chance, too? Mr. FOLLETT: Why should I take any more chances than I have to with my contemporaries? I pick them pretty carefully, I can tell you. Mr. HERGESHEIMER: I shall write a novel to be published after my death. There was Henry Adams. He stipulated that _The Education of Henry Adams_ should not be published until after his death; and everybody says it is positively brilliant. Mr. FOLLETT (_relieved_): That is a wise decision. But don’t be disheartened. I’ll probably be able to get around to you in ten years, anyway. (_Mr. Hergesheimer bows and retires._) CLERK PHELPS: John Galsworthy! Mr. FOLLETT (_brightening_): Some of the Englishmen! This is better! Besides, I know all about Galsworthy. Mr. GALSWORTHY (_coming forward_): I feel much honored. COUNSEL FOR THE PROSECUTION: If the court please, I must state that for some time now Mr. Galsworthy has been published serially in a magazine with a circulation of one digit and six ciphers. Or one cipher and six digits, I cannot remember which.