"And those women?"
"Oh, they are members of the Anti-Slavery Society. It was their holding the meeting that made the trouble. The children followed them, hooting them through the streets!"
"Children?"
"Yes; you know children repeat what they hear at home—they echo the thoughts of their elders. The children hooted them, then some one threw a stone through a window. A crowd gathered, and here you are!"
The Colonel shook himself loose from the lawyer and followed the mob. The Mayor's counsel prevailed: "Give the prisoner to me—I will see that he is punished!"
And so he was dragged to the City Hall and there locked up.
The crowd lingered, then thinned out. The shouts grew less, and soon the police were able to rout the loiterers.
The young lawyer went back to his law-office, but not to study. The law looked different to him now—the whole legal aspect of things had changed in an hour.
It was a pivotal point.
He had heard much of the majesty of the law, and here he had seen the entire machinery of justice brushed aside.