His Lordship glared at the lady in shocked amazement.
Upon being questioned, Mrs. Laurie confided that most of her early life had been passed playing in Pantomimes, therefore she had always been fond of dancing. At the present time she kept a lodging-house for theatricals, and the only chance she had of indulging in her old and favourite pastime seemed to be to dance attendance upon these lodgers.
"Never mind what you do indoors," suggested Counsel. "I want to know what you do out of doors, what you did out of doors on the particular night in question when you met the Lord Mayor of London."
"Well, I felt young and girlish," confessed Cissie. "The first floor back and the second floor front had both gone out, and the house seemed dull with no lights and nobody in it."
"Never mind about the house or the lighting of it," interrupted Counsel. "You went out for a walk in the streets of London."
"When I got to Trafalgar Square," continued Cissie, "I felt skittish, thoughtless and jolly, and I could 'ave declared he laughed at me and then winked."
_Judge_ (interrupting). "The witness tells her story very badly. Who laughed and winked at her? The Lord Mayor?"
_Counsel_ (hastily). "No, no, my Lord, not the Lord Mayor; the Lion."
_Judge_. "Oh, well, why doesn't she say so?"
Then proceeded Cissie, heedless of all interruptions--
"I sees the wreath round his neck, and I at once thought of the Russian dancers----"
_Judge_. "Tut, tut, tut! what has the fact of the Lord Mayor of London having a wreath round his neck to do with the Russian ballet?"
_Counsel_ (in despair). "Not the Lord Mayor, my Lord; the Lion."
_Judge_ (testily). "Then will the witness please say the word Lion whenever she wishes to refer to the Lion?"
_Cissy_ (imperturbably). "I don't want to refer to it no more, 'cos I collared the wreath, and 'olding it over my 'ead I danced round the Square, just like the posters of them Russian dancers."
_His Lordship_ (irritably). "Which particular poster was she desirous of realising?"
_Counsel_. "My Lord, I think it must be the one of a slim and classic youth dancing the Bacchanal with a wreath uplifted over his head."
_His Lordship_ (looking at Cissie's ample form completely filling the witness-box, murmurs), "No, I cannot see the picture at all."