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THAT ROYLE GIRL
173

only asked again the question which had puzzled her, "I mean, where is your home?"

"You're in it," she had replied and wondered, as she had wondered again this morning, that he had not understood. But now she knew what he had meant by his question. Where, he had asked, had she a home like this?

Max Elmen reëntered. "You read all that about Mr. Clarke?" he asked.

"Not all," admitted Joan Daisy.

"Read all. Take your time," bid Max. "I find out all I can about him; you must, too. Remember that for many hours, for two or three days maybe, you will have to use your wits against Assistant State's Attorney Clarke, and my wits will not much help you. I will do for you what I can; but on the cross-examination, he will have you; you will be his witness. When he asks you a question I have not expected, I can stand up. 'I object. This is outrageous!' I can say to the judge; but maybe the judge says, 'objection overruled. The witness must answer.' What then?"

"What?" asked Joan Daisy.

"Why, you must answer him; and I can not always tell you what to say. I will think of many questions and before you go on the stand I will teach you how to answer; but I know I can not think of all—especially against Assistant State's Attorney Clarke," said Elmen, seating himself and leaning back with his heavy eyelids drooped in contemplation.

"Why especially with Mr. Clarke?"

Elmen opened his eyes and replied directly: "He is not clever; he is not quick; he does not know so much law as many others. The state's attorney's office is full of young men much smarter than Mr. Clarke. But he,"