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."