The opportunity was at hand: for he had taken McGivney's advise and
got himself another girl. It was a little romance, very worldly and
delightful. To understand it, you must know that in the judicial
procedure of American City they used both men and women jurors; and
because busy men of affairs did not want to waste their time in the
jury-box, nor to have the time of their clerks and workingmen
wasted, there had gradually grown up a class of men and women who
made their living by working as jurors. They hung around the
courthouse and were summoned on panel after panel, being paid six
dollars a day, with numerous opportunities to make money on the side
if they were clever.
Among this group of professional jurors, there was the keenest
competition to get into the jury-box of the Goober case. It was to
be a long and hard-fought case, there would be a good deal of
prestige attached to it, and also there were numerous sums of money
floating round. Anybody who got in, and who voted right, might be
sure of an income for life, to say nothing of a life-job as a juror
if he wanted it.
Peter happened to be in court while the talesmen were being
questioned. A very charming and petite brunette--what Peter
described as a "swell dresser"--was on the stand, and was cleverly
trying to satisfy both sides.
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