Middletown transcript., 1917-04-21
CHAPTER III.-Continued.

'On, Sne Salu, luolHel "liI'oh
two or three books, and lots of maga-
zine articles, about wOmen-women
rights and suffrage, and all that.
She's been-well, sort of leader ever
since she graduated from college,
back in-just think !-197O, when most
girls used to have II accomplishments
French, music, and washing extra,
you know"
She said it all with a quite adora-
BILE seriousness, and his gravity match
ed hers when he replied: Il would
like to meet her very much. Femin-
ism's a subject I'm blankly ignorant
about"
81 don't believe" she said thought
fully, that I'd call it feminism in
talking to mother about it, if / were
you. Mothers a suffragist, but
there came another wave of faint
color along with her smile-"but -
we'll, she's awfully respectable, you
know"
She didn't seem to mind his laugh
ing out at that, though she didn't
join him.
"What about the other interesting
member of the family" he asked
presently, "your sister? Which is she,
a suffragist or feminist?"
81 suppose" she said, you'd call
Portia q feminist. Anyway, she
hasn't time to talk about it much. You
see, she's business woman. She's
house decorator. She tells you what
kind of furniture to buy, and then
sells it to you. Portals terribly clever
and awfully independent"
"All right" he said. ''That brings
us down to you. What are you?"
She sighed. I'm sort of black
sheep, guess. I'm just in the univer-
sity. But I'm to be lawyer"
Whereupon he cried out so explo-
sively that she fairly jumped. Then he
apologized and said the notion Of her
in court trying a case-he was law
yer himself-seemed rather startling.
She sighed again. "And now l
suppose" she said, you'll advise me
not to be-
mot bit" he said. "It's the fin
est profession in the world"
But he said it off the top of his
mind. Down below, it was still en-
gagged with the picture. of her in a
dismal courtroom, blazing up at a
Jury the way she had blazed up at
that conductor.
Il suppose" she hazarded 'that it's
awfully dull and tiresome, though,
until you get way up to the top"
That reused him. 'It's awfully dull
when you do get to the top, or what's
called the top-being q client care
taker with the routine law business
of a few big corporations and rich
estates going through your office like
grist through a mill. That's supposed
to be the big reward, of course"
He was out Of his chair now, tramp
ing up and down the room. 'The thing
to bear in mind, if you're going to
travel that road, is that case is
worth while in q precise and unaltera-
BILE ratio to the amount of money in
volved in it. If you question that
axiom at all seriously, you're lost.
That's what happened to me-"
He pulled up with a jerk, looked at
her and laughed. "If my sister Fre-
derica were here" he explained. "she
would warn you that now was the time
for YOU to ask me If I'd been to see
Maude Adams or something like that"
She smiled in a sort Of cOntented
amusement. Then the smile trans
muted itself into look of thoughtful
gravity, and there was a long silence
which, though it puzzled him, he made
no move to break.
At last she pulled in long breath,
turned straight to him, and said: Il
wish you'd tell me what happened
to you"
And, under the compelling sincerity
of her, for the next two hours and a
half. or thereabOuts, he did-told it
as he had never told it before.
He told her how he had started at
the foot of the ladder in one of the
big successful firms of what he called
"client caretakers." He told of his
discovery of real legal problem and
of the passionate enthusiasm with
which he had attacked it, the thrill
ing weeks of labor he had put upon it.
And then he told her how the head
of the firm, an old friend of his ia
theirs. had called him in and said the
work he had done was very remark
able, but unfortunately, not profitable
TO the firm. the whole amount involved
in the case having been some twenty
dollars. In other words, he was fired.
He told her how he'd got in with
an altruistic bunch - the City Homes
association And from the way he
told of his labors in drafting new
city ordinance, she felt that it must
have been one of the most faScinat-
ing occupations in the world, I'M
til he told her how it had drawn him
into politics, and then how after an
election q new states attorney had of
fered him q position on his staff of
assistants.
In q sense, of course, it was true
that he had, as Frederick would have
put it, forgotten she was there.
The girl knew he had forgotten, and
her only discomfort came from the