"
"Of course, of course. Proceed. What did you do?"
"I stopped. I fell back--"
"Of course. Behind a tree?"
"Behind some elderberry bushes."
"Of course. Elderberry bushes--that's better than a tree. I am very fond
of elderberry wine when it is new. Proceed."
The Clerk of the Court shrank. What did it matter whether or no the Judge
liked elderberry wine, when the world was falling down for Jean Jacques
and his Zoe--and his wife. But with a sigh he continued: "There is
nothing more. I stayed there for awhile, and then crept up the hill
again, and came back to my home and locked myself in."
"What had you done that you should lock yourself in?"
"Ah, monsieur, how can I explain such things? Perhaps I was ashamed that
I had seen things I should not have seen. I do not blush that I wept for
the child, who is--but you saw her, monsieur le juge."
"Yes, yes, the little Zoe, and the little philosopher. Proceed."
"What more is there to tell!"
"A trifle perhaps, as you will think," remarked the Judge ironically, but
as one who, finding a crime, must needs find the criminal too. "I must
ask you to inform the Court who was the too polite friend of Madame."
"Monsieur, pardon me. I forgot. It is essential, of course. You must know
that there is a flume, a great wooden channel--"
"Yes, yes. I comprehend. Once I had a case of a flume.
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