Huntsville gazette., 1885-06-20
A CUNNING FOX.
and How He Was Caught in His
Own Trap.

her in the firm of Plumley G. Fox, the
principal solicitors in the somewhat
dead-alive old Cathedral town of Slum-
Borough. He was smart, well-set-up
young man, of two or three and thirty,
with carefully trimmed black whiskers,
. silken manner and an unlimited flow
Of more or less entertaining small talk.
Hence it came to pass that he was an
exceedingly popular man among the
ladies of Scarborough, both old and
yeung, and, had his views lain in the
direction of matrimony, he would have
had small difficulty in inducing any
Aashful damsel or frisky widow to
6hare his lot. But the handsome So
1citor was ambitious; his share in the
business did not at present bring him
m more than q moderate income, and
he had long ago determined that when
he married he must consider not only
beauty, but more solid advantages.
Heiresses, however, were not plenti-
ful in Scarborough, and so, although
Mr.. Fox's attentions frequently fiut-
tered virgin bosom, he was careful not
to commit himself too far, and not
even the local gossips could fairly say
Of him that he had compromised rep
utation or knowingly raised false hopes.
There was, indeed, one young lady who
had made deep impression upon the
solicitors heart, but she was the daugh-
ter OF county magnate with whom
poor Mr.. Fox was not even on visiting
terms. He had met her at the Annual
Hunt ball, she had danced twice with
him, for Mr.. Fox was an excellent
waltzer; but her mother had doubtless
warned her against him, for when next
they met, some six weeks afterward,
Miss Laquerton passed the unfortunate
man without so much as a bow Miss
Laquerten, however, was lovely and
rich, and Mr.. Fox was not man to be
easily discouraged. He knew that if
he could only afford to cut the Office and
blossom into a landed proprietor, he
would have just as good a chance with
her as anybody else; so he waited pa
tiently in the hopes OF one day dis
covering the road which leads to fortune
and success.
The firm of Plumley & Fox was a
highly respectable and old-fashioned
concern which avoided litigation, and
kept almost entirely to family business.
Plumley was fairly good lawyer, but
Fox's legal knowledge was of the most
limited character, and he was much
too lazy to take the trouble to increase
it. So it came to be understood be-
tween them that while Plumley did the
office work, Fox kept the clients in
good humor by calling on them apro-
pos of nothing. and amusing them with
his jokes and stories. This business
was technically termed keeping the
connection together and it suited
Mr.. Fox very well, indeed. 1t was
while he was thus keeping the connec-
ton together that Mr.. Fox made the
acquaintance of a certain rich old
widow lady, named Mrs. johnson, and
so well did he play his cards that be-
fore long Plumley & Fox became Mrs.
Johnson's family solicitors. land
agents and confidential advisers. The
firm made a pretty good thing out of
Mrs. johnson. In accordance with
the usual arrangement, Plumley trans
acted the business, and Fox became
constant visitor at her house, and
worked his way into her good graces
by his wonderful powers of amusing
conversation. There was yet another
accomplishment which stood our soli-
citor in very good stead, and this was
an accurate knowledge of chemistry
and medicine, which he had picked up
as boy in the shop Of his uncle, the
chemist. The horrible smells young
Fox had created in his experiments and
the ugly stains he had made on his
hands determined him to forsake medi-
cine for the law, but he never entirely
forgot his early experiences. He could
talk huently about every known drug
and disease. and about great many
which had not yet been discovered; be
diagnosed Mrs. Johnson's symptoms
at least as accurately as MacBolus, the
Scotch doctor, and.-would even have