Jimmie insisted. “It’s more important than I can tell you.” “I’m in the habit of getting things right,” Mrs. Norris said. “Mrs. Shaw said she watched the hussy pick him up herself.” “It isn’t her picking him up or putting him down,” Jimmie said. “That amounts to hearsay. But that Daisy Thayer went deliberately to check on Theodore Adkins’ financial information—that’s the thing to hand a jury. What I should like now is an affidavit on it.” “Then take me to the play tonight, Mr. James.” “But I can’t do that,” Jimmie said. “Don’t you understand? Suppose the Thayer woman were to show up herself tonight for this boy’s opening—she knows him, doesn’t she?—I’m going to be facing her in court, Mrs. Norris.” “Well, Mr. James,” she said with Scots doggedness, “if it’s below your dignity to do what you ask me to do, all right. It seems to me an excellent opportunity for you to get first hand your ammunition. And tell me this—if she does show up tonight, is that the proper place for the mother of a fatherless child?”
