however, he himself slipped a love-token upon the plate and pushed it towards her.  That love-token was a lozenge—­a small disk, I have reason to believe, concocted of peppermint and sugar, bearing upon its reverse surface the simple words, ‘I love you!’ I have since ascertained that these disks may be bought for five cents a dozen—­or at considerably less than one half cent for the single lozenge.  Yes, gentlemen, the words ’I love you!’—­the oldest legend of all; the refrain ’when the morning stars sang together’—­were presented to the plaintiff by a medium so insignificant that there is, happily, no coin in the republic low enough to represent its value.

“I shall prove to you, gentlemen of the jury,” said the Colonel solemnly, drawing a Bible from his coat-tail pocket, “that the defendant for the last twelve months conducted an amatory correspondence with the plaintiff by means of underlined words of Sacred Writ and church psalmody, such as ‘beloved,’ ‘precious,’ and ‘dearest,’ occasionally appropriating whole passages which seemed apposite to his tender passion.  I shall call your attention to one of them.  The defendant, while professing to be a total abstainer,—­a man who, in my own knowledge, has refused spirituous refreshment as an inordinate weakness of the flesh,—­with shameless hypocrisy underscores with his pencil the following passage, and presents it to the plaintiff.  The gentlemen of the jury will find it in the Song of Solomon, page 548, chapter ii. verse 5.”  After a pause, in which the rapid rustling of leaves was heard in the jury-box, Colonel Starbottle declaimed in a pleading, stentorian voice, “’Stay me with—­er—­flagons, comfort me with—­er—­apples—­for I am—­er—­sick of love.’  Yes, gentlemen!—­yes, you may well turn from those accusing pages and look at the double-faced defendant.  He desires—­to—­er—­be—­’stayed with flagons’!  I am not aware at present what kind of liquor is habitually dispensed at these meetings, and for which the defendant so urgently clamored; but it will be my duty, before this trial is over, to discover it, if I have to summon every barkeeper in this district.  For the moment I will simply call your attention to the quantity.  It is not a single drink that the defendant asks for—­not a glass of light and generous wine, to be shared with his inamorata, but a number of flagons or vessels, each possibly holding a pint measure—­for himself!”

The smile of the audience had become a laugh.  The Judge looked up warningly, when his eye caught the fact that the Colonel had again winced at this mirth.  He regarded him seriously.  Mr. Hotchkiss’s counsel had joined in the laugh affectedly, but Hotchkiss himself sat ashy pale.  There was also a commotion in the jury-box, a hurried turning over of leaves, and an excited discussion.

“The gentlemen of the jury,” said the Judge, with official gravity, “will please keep order and attend only to the speeches of counsel.  Any discussion here is irregular and premature, and must be reserved for the jury-room after they have retired.”