made you
and me and Eleanor remember this chance meeting so long--let me
see--how long was it?"

"A year ago last June," said Mattie. One of her functions in their
partnership was to hold small details always ready to the hand of the
wide-thinking Judge.

"Will he go back on me--that's the question," pursued the Judge.
"Success is probably at the end for him, but he has two ways of
success open. He may go slowly and well, or fast and ill. Road number
one: he stays with my moth-eaten old practice, he refurbishes it, he
earns a partnership; and so to conservative clients and, probably, to
genuine success." He hesitated.

"And the other road?" asked Mrs. Tiffany.

"Oh, that has many by-paths. He is trying one of them already. The
stealthy, invaluable Attwood has told me about it. This Mr. Chester
has made an investment in Richmond lots on information which he had no
right to use. Never mind the details. If he follows that general
direction, it will be a flashy success, a pretty worm-eaten crown of
laurels."

"Like Northrup's," broke in Mrs. Tiffany. That name always jarred on
their ears. Northrup, ex-congressman, flowery Western orator, all
Christian love on the surface, all guile beneath--he had taken to
himself that success which Judge Tiffany might have had but for his
hesitations of conscience. Theirs was a secret resentment. Judge
Tiffany's pride would never have let him show the world one glimmer of
what he felt.

"Suppose he should follow that path--and take up with Northrup," went
on Judge Tiffany. "Mine honorable opponent has use for such young men
as our Mr. Chester will prove himself if he follows that
path--magnetic young men to coax the rabble, young men not too nice on
moral questions. Well, a boy isn't born with honor, any more than he's
born with courage; he grows to it. And God only knows just when the
boy strikes the divide which will turn his course one way or the
other."

"But Edward, you ought to warn him!"

"In the first place, it would do no good to warn one of his age and
temperament. In the second place, it would spoil the experiment--but I
had commanded you to talk, and here I am doing it all. How looked she;
what said he?"

"To-day--just before church--I was hooking up Kate and Eleanor, and he
telephoned."

"Instinct, of course, informing you that it was none other than he at
the other end of the wire?" On another tongue and in another fashion
of speech, this sentence might have b