Paul Ralston by Mary Jane Holmes

The broken bars to the window of the jail had been repaired, and Paul was in his old quarters, to which a part of the furniture carried there before from the Ralston House had been returned. Tom did not show so much anxiety to fit up the room as he had done, nor was he as often there during the short time which elapsed between Paul's surrender and his trial. His negligence, however, was in a measure made up by Sherry, who regularly every morning trotted through the town to the jail, giving first a loud bark as a greeting and then scratching on the door for admittance, and when that was refused lying down under the window from which Paul occasionally spoke to him. At noon he would go home for his dinner, play a little while with Beauty, the pug, whom Paul had bought in the early summer,-then going to Mrs. Ralston, who was now ill in bed with dread and apprehension, he would look at her with beseeching eyes, as if asking what had happened to take his master away and lick the hand with which she patted his head. This done he would trot back to the jail, bark to let Paul know he was there and stretch himself again under the window, growling if any one came near, as many did come, from curiosity to see the animal growing nearly as famous as Paul himself. At night he went home and staid there, but was back in the morning. Stevens tried two or three times to feed him and save him his long walks, but Sherry disdained the offered fare, preferring the exercise, which was not prolonged for any length of time.

The court was to be in session very soon after Paul's return to prison, and, if the excitement was great before, it was greater now, with a desire to see again the man who had voluntarily given himself up, and to see Elithe, whose part in his escape had become known and was commented upon differently by different people. Some called her bold,-some plucky,-some that she did it to atone for her damaging testimony, and others that she was in love with Paul, and this had influenced her actions. Through whatever lens she was looked at, she was an object of great interest, and the people were eager to know if she would tell exactly the same story as before, and if Miss Hansford would treat them to a circus similar to the one at the first trial. Neither she nor Elithe shrank from meeting people, and the latter was quite ready to talk of Paul's escape, keeping her own part in it in the background as much as possible, and dwelling upon Tom's bravery and devotion. She was doing all she could for him by way of enlisting public opinion in his behalf. He tried to be cheerful and natural, but sometimes failed utterly, and there was a look on his face different from anything seen there before Paul's second arrest.