ent even if he
had been able to pay the hire of one.

So the new beginning was made. A man of Mr. Ridley's talents and
reputation could not long remain unemployed. In the very first week he
had a client and a retaining fee of twenty-five dollars. The case was
an important one, involving some nice questions of mercantile law. It
came up for argument in the course of a few weeks, and gave the
opportunity he wanted. His management of the case was so superior to
that of the opposing counsel, and his citations of law and precedent so
cumulative and explicit, that he gained not only an easy victory, but
made for himself a very favorable impression.

After that business began gradually to flow in upon him, and he was
able to gather in sufficient to keep his family, though for some time
only in a very humble way. Having no old acquaintances in the city, Mr.
Ridley was comparatively free from temptation. He was promptly at his
office in the morning, never leaving it, except to go into court or
some of the public offices on business, until the hour arrived for
returning home.

A new life had become dominant, a new ambition was ruling him. Hope
revived in the heart of his almost despairing wife, and the future
looked bright again. His eyes had grown clear and confident once more
and his stooping shoulders square and erect. In his bearing you saw the
old stateliness and conscious sense of power. Men treated him with
deference and respect.

In less than a year Mr. Ridley was able to remove his family into a
better house and to afford the expense of a servant. So far they had
kept out of the city's social life. Among strangers and living humbly,
almost meanly, they neither made nor received calls nor had invitations
to evening entertainments; and herein lay Mr. Ridley's safety. It was
on his social side that he was weakest. He could hold himself above
appetite and deny its cravings if left to the contest alone. The
drinking-saloons whose hundred doors he had to pass daily did not tempt
him, did not cause his firm steps to pause nor linger. His sorrow and
shame for the past and his solemn promises and hopes for the future
were potent enough to save him from all such allurements. For him their
doors stood open in vain. The path of danger lay in another direction.
He would have to be taken unawares. If betrayed at all, it must be, so
to speak, in the house of a friend. The Delilah of "good society" must
put caution and conscience t