CHAPTER XXXVIII.
LOU IS CAUGHT AT LAST.
As Faith passed Mr. Denton's office on the way to the cloak-room she heard a woman's voice raised to a very high pitch, and immediately recognized it as belonging to Miss Willis.
She had hardly had time to wonder what had occurred, when the door flew open and she had a good look right straight into the office.
Ben Tyler, the detective, was standing with his hand on the door and a very ugly expression on his face, while a few feet further back stood Mr. Denton, apparently trying to reason with the infuriated woman.
One glance was enough to tell Faith what had happened. Lou had been stealing again, and the detective had caught her.
For a moment the young girl hardly knew what to do, and in that momentary hesitation she heard what Lou was saying.
"He's a sneak and a liar!" she screamed, pointing at the detective. "He can't prove that I stole anything! I defy him to do it!"
"But the goods were found in your pocket," said Mr. Denton, firmly.
"Oh, that doesn't prove anything," was the girl's quick answer. "It's very easy for any one to put stolen goods in my pocket; it's been done before, and both of you know it!"
"But I saw you take the watch," said the detective, angrily. "So what's the use of denying it any longer!"
Faith was hurrying away now as fast as she could go. She knew it was not her place to interfere in such matters.
"A month ago I might have done so," she whispered to herself, "but now that Mr. Denton is a Christian, he will deal mercifully with her."
When she reached the cloak-room the utmost excitement prevailed, and the first words that Faith heard distinctly were spoken by the "head of stock" in the jewelry department.
"I've suspected her for a long time," she said, a little viciously. "She's a good-for-nothing, anyway, who isn't above stealing!"
"They say her father was a thief; so it runs in the family, I guess," said another voice; "and then, her mother was a bad character; so Lou comes by it honestly!"
"Oh, girls! don't!" cried Faith, who could endure it no longer. "Please don't say such cruel things! It is dreadful to bear them!"
"Well, they are true, so why shouldn't we say them?" asked one.
"She's been caught 'dead to rights,' so what's the use of mincing matters?" said another.
"But does it do any good to bring up all these things?" asked Faith. "If the poor girl 'comes honestly by them,' should we not be charitable even in speaking of her?"
"There is something in that," spoke up a woman that Faith did not know, "It's another case of the 'sins of the fathers being visited upon the children.' If there was nothing else in the world to keep me from believing in a God, that verse in the Bible would surely do it!"
"Well, I don't need that verse," said another voice, "for the misery and injustice on earth are enough to prove that no God of love or mercy could possibly have ordained it."
"But don't we make a great deal of the injustice and misery for ourselves?" asked Faith, very soberly; "for instance, hasn't Lou just made a lot of misery for herself? She knew she could not go on stealing forever without being punished."
"She probably couldn't help it," was the hesitating answer. "Perhaps she is a kleptomaniac—you know there are such people."
"Oh, but they are always rich people, who can afford to pay the judge for letting them off easy!" said one of the girls, laughing. "When a poor woman steals she's an out-and-out thief; but when a rich woman steals she's a kleptomaniac."
A laugh followed this explanation, but Faith could not join in it. Her thoughts were too full of the fate which had overtaken Lou, and which she knew was only a natural consequence.
Suddenly there was a scream from the direction of Mr. Denton's office, then another, and another, each more shrill and vibrating.
Without a moment's hesitation every girl in the cloak-room started for the stairs. When they got there they saw a sight that made them pale with horror.
Lou Willis was struggling like a maniac between two officers, who were trying to snap a pair of handcuffs on her wrists.
They were both powerful men, but the girl was resisting them fiercely. She slapped and scratched their faces, all the time shrieking her vituperations.
They finally succeeded in locking the "bracelets" and forcing her into a chair—she was too thoroughly exhausted to hold out much longer.
"Do you mean to say that she isn't crazy?" whispered one of the girls on the stairs.
The tears flowed down Faith's cheeks, but she answered the whisper.
"Poor Lou! Poor Lou! She must be crazy! No woman could act or even feel like that and be in her right senses!"
The door of the office was suddenly closed, and, as Lou was silent now, the girls trooped slowly back to the cloak-room.
"They'll take her away as soon as she's quiet," said one, "and that will mean at least six months on Blackwell's Island."
"She's been there before, I think," spoke up a cash girl. "You know, she was caught stealing in another store, but Denton, Day & Co. didn't know it."
"Did you know it when she came here?"
It was Miss Jones who asked the question. She had come in just in time to hear the last of the conversation.
"Of course I knew it, but what of that? Suppose I was going to prevent the girl from earning her living?"
"But didn't you think she'd be apt to steal again?"
The girl laughed coarsely before she answered.
"Well, to tell you the truth, I hoped she would!" she said, glibly. "I would like to have seen her get away with the whole establishment! What were Denton, Day & Co. doing about that time, I'd like to know? Weren't they robbing the poor devils who made their goods, cheating their customers with inferior garments and exorbitant prices, and last, but not least, weren't they wearing the souls out of our bodies with the system of slavery that they employed in the building? What did I care who cheated them or even who robbed them? Wouldn't they grind me to death just as they did poor Miss Jennings? Of course, if it should happen now I should feel very different; still, I'm a good deal sorrier for Lou than I am for Mr. Denton!"
"We would all feel different now," spoke up Faith very quickly. "We would all scorn to be disloyal to such a good employer as Mr. Denton!"
"He's the best friend we girls ever had," spoke up another clerk. "Why, we are in heaven now, compared with what we were a month ago! Shorter hours, bigger pay, no slave-drivers over us, and, best of all, we are treated like human beings. There is no more of that feeling that we are a lot of cattle!"
"The Lord be praised for all His goodness," said Faith, devoutly, "for what but His mercy has enacted this change? It is a demonstration of His love through His servant, Mr. Denton."
"You are right, Miss Marvin," said Miss Jones, firmly. "There is no power on earth that could have altered these conditions, and I for one am ready and glad to admit it!"
Faith looked at the speaker with beaming eyes. It delighted her to witness her companion's fearless demeanor.
"There they go! Lou and the officers!" cried cash girl Number 83. "They are almost carrying her down the stairs! I wouldn't be in her shoes for a thousand dollars."
"Perhaps she'll repent, like poor Mag Brady," said Miss Jones, thoughtfully. "After Mag's wonderful conversion, I feel that there is hope for all of us."
Faith wiped the tears from her eyes as she saw the last of Lou.
"Though your sins be as scarlet—" She could not finish the verse. The next instant she burst out crying—she was weeping for Lou Willis.