Next day we were all back in our places at the appointed hour, and, not greeting each other much, at once began to bring in bills.  We brought them in, not quite so fast, as though some lurking megrim, some microbe of dissatisfaction with ourselves was at work within us.  It was as if we wanted to throw one out, as if we felt our work too perfect.  And presently it came.  A case of defrauding one Sophie Liebermann, or Laubermann, or some such foreign name, by giving her one of those five-pound Christmas-card banknotes just then in fashion, and receiving from her, as she alleged, three real sovereigns change.  There was a certain piquancy about the matter, and I well remember noticing how we sat a little forward and turned in our seats when they brought in the prosecutrix to give evidence.  Pale, self-possessed, dressed in black, and rather comely, neither brazen nor furtive, speaking but poor English, her broad, matter-of-fact face, with its wide-set grey eyes and thickish nose and lips, made on me, I recollect, an impression of rather stupid honesty.  I do not think they had told us in so many words what her calling was, nor do I remember whether she actually disclosed it, but by our demeanour I could tell that we had all realized what was the nature of the service rendered to the accused, in return for which he had given her this worthless note.  In her rather guttural but pleasant voice she answered all our questions—­not very far from tears, I think, but saved by native stolidity, and perhaps a little by the fear that purifiers of Society might not be the proper audience for emotion.  When she had left us we recalled the detective, and still, as it were, touching the delicate matter with the tips of our tongues, so as not, being men of the world, to seem biassed against anything, we definitely elicited from him her profession and these words:  “If she’s speaking the truth, gentlemen; but, as you know, these women, they don’t always, specially the foreign ones!” When he, too, had gone, we looked at each other in unwonted silence.  None of us quite liked, it seemed, to be first to speak.  Then our foreman said:  “There’s no doubt, I think, that he gave her the note—­mean trick, of course, but we can’t have him on that alone—­bit too irregular—­no consideration in law, I take it.”

He smiled a little at our smiles, and then went on:  “The question, gentlemen, really seems to be, are we to take her word that she actually gave him change?” Again, for quite half a minute; we were silent, and then, the fattest one of us said, suddenly:  “Very dangerous—­goin’ on the word of these women.”