And now Lilienfeld handed back to Mr. Garry what Mr. Garry had given Mr. Lilienfeld.

“If there really is a pest in America, its seat is in the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children.  The society is the very breeding-place of the epidemic, in so far as there is an epidemic in the land.  It is ridiculous in Mr. Garry to maintain that Europe is a plague-boil.  Europe is the mother of America.  Without the genius of a Columbus—­we are at this very moment celebrating Columbus’s discovery of America—­without the genius of a Columbus and the constant influx of powerful intellects from Germany, England and Ireland,” here he winked an eye at the Mayor, “the United States would be a dead and dreary land.”

After thus moving heaven and earth and sea for the little dancer’s sake, Lilienfeld exposed the base intent of his competitors, Webster and Forster, in denouncing him to the Society, and indignantly repudiated Garry’s assertion that he, Lilienfeld, was an exploiter.  His competitors, perhaps, were exploiters.

“See how good the conditions are under which Miss Hahlstroem is filling her engagement with me.  There is my wife.  In some respects she has been a mother to the girl.  She is taking care of her in our own home, and the girl is in good health.  She has a dancer’s physique.  It is a piece of bare-faced impudence to impugn the girl’s honour.  She is not a degenerate.  She is not a neglected child.  On the contrary she is simply a great artist.”

Lilienfeld had left his highest trump for the last.

“Mr. Garry,” he shouted so loud that the lofty windows rattled, “Mr. Garry called me a foreigner, a freebooter and the like.  I object most decidedly.  I am as much an American citizen as Mr. Garry.  Mr. Garry, do you hear I am an American citizen?” For certain reasons Lilienfeld had had himself naturalised only a month before.  “Mr. Garry, do you hear I am an American citizen?” he cried several times in succession, directly addressing the old jingo and leaning far across the table.  “Mr. Garry, do you hear I am an American citizen?  Mr. Garry, I am an American citizen, and I will have my rights like you.”

That was the end.  The wheezing in Lilienfeld’s chest, as he seated himself, breathing heavily, was distinctly audible.  There was not the faintest quiver in Mr. Garry’s face.

After a rather lengthy pause, during which there was profound silence, the Mayor spoke.  His words came out quietly, in his customary manner of mild embarrassment and shrewd affability, which rather became him.  His decision was exactly what the political augurers, judging by the constellation in the ascendant, had prophesied.  Ingigerd was granted the right to dance in public.

“The young lady, according to the decision of physicians called upon to testify, has been declared sound in body.  There is no occasion to doubt that she is over sixteen years of age and no reason for preventing her from earning her livelihood by the exercise of an art which she has already practised in Europe.”