Mr. Holliday (noting the effect of this revelation on the members of the court): Very well, I will not insist. Booth, you will have to get along the best you can with newspaper and magazine reviews and with what people write to you or tell you face to face. Be brave, Tark, and do as you aren’t done by. After all, a few million people read you and you make enough to live on. The court will pass on you after you are dead, and if you dictate any books on the ouija board the court’s verdict may be helpful to you then; you might even manage the later Henry James manner.
Clerk of the Court (Prof. William Lyon Phelps): Next case! Mrs. Atherton please step forward!
Mrs. Atherton (advancing with composure): I can find no one to act for me, so I will be my own counsel. I will say at the outset that I do not care for the court, individually or collectively, nor for its verdict, whatever it may be.
Prof. Phelps: I must warn you that anything you say may, and probably will, be used against you.
Mrs. Atherton: Oh, I don’t mind that; it’s the things the members of the court have said against me that I purpose to use against them.
Mr. Brownell: Are you, by any chance, referring to me, Madam?
Mrs. Atherton: I do not refer to persons, Mr. Brownell. I hit them. No, I had Mr. Boynton particularly in mind. And perhaps Gene Stratton-Porter. Is she here? (Looks around menacingly). No. Well, go ahead with your nonsense.
Mr. Howells (rising): I think I will withdraw from consideration of this case. Mrs. Atherton has challenged me so often——
Mr. Boynton: No, stay. I am going to stick it out——
Mr. Follett: I think there is no question but that we should hold the defendant in contempt.