to do it any more--that's all."

"How can Mr. Watling help you?" I inquired.

"Well, I don't mind giving you a few tips about your profession, Hughie.
I'm going to get Watling to fix it up with the City Hall gang. Old
Lord doesn't like it, I'll admit, and when I told him we had been
contributing to the city long enough, that I proposed swinging into line
with other property holders, he began to blubber about disgrace and what
my grandfather would say if he were alive. Well, he isn't alive. A good
deal of water has flowed under the bridges since his day. It's a mere
matter of business, of getting your respectable firm to retain a City
Hall attorney to fix it up with the assessor."

"How about the penitentiary?" I ventured, not too seriously.

"I shan't go to the penitentiary, neither will Watling. What I do is to
pay a lawyer's fee. There isn't anything criminal in that, is there?"

For some time after Ralph had departed I sat reflecting upon this new
knowledge, and there came into my mind the bitterness of Cousin Robert
Breck against this City Hall gang, and his remarks about lawyers. I
recalled the tone in which he had referred to Mr. Watling. But Ralph's
philosophy easily triumphed. Why not be practical, and become master
of a situation which one had not made, and could not alter, instead
of being overwhelmed by it? Needless to say, I did not mention the
conversation to Mr. Watling, nor did he dwindle in my estimation. These
necessary transactions did not interfere in any way with his personal
relationships, and his days were filled with kindnesses. And was not
Mr. Ripon, the junior partner, one of the evangelical lights of the
community, conducting advanced Bible classes every week in the Church
of the Redemption?... The unfolding of mysteries kept me alert. And I
understood that, if I was to succeed, certain esoteric knowledge must
be acquired, as it were, unofficially. I kept my eyes and ears open, and
applied myself, with all industry, to the routine tasks with which every
young man in a large legal firm is familiar. I recall distinctly my
pride when, the Board of Aldermen having passed an ordinance lowering
the water rates, I was intrusted with the responsibility of going before
the court in behalf of Mr. Ogilvy's water company, obtaining a temporary
restricting order preventing the ordinance from going at once into
effect. Here was an affair in point. Were it not for lawyers of the
calibre of Watling, Fownde