"Are you in contempt of court?" the judge wheezed.
"Please don't ask me that, judge," Toffee said sweetly. "Let's be friends."
"Now, look here...."
"Be calm, judge!" Toffee said. "If you don't settle down we'll have to find someone else. Now, who's being charged with what around here?"
"Who is that woman?" Julie demanded sharply.
Toffee smiled at her winsomely. "It would only upset you to know, dear," she murmured.
The gavel banged again, announcing that the judge had regained the gift of speech. "Silence in the court!" he bellowed. He turned eyes heavy with vexation on Toffee's pert face. "If I give you a resume of the court's activities until the awful moment of your intrusion, will that make you feel sufficiently included in things?"
"That would be fine, judge," Toffee said pleasantly.
"God in heaven!" the judge moaned and took a deep breath. In a rumbling voice he enumerated again the list of Marc's crimes. As he did so, Marc's expression became more and more incredulous.
"But that's not true!" he cried out. "Almost none of it, judge!"