night, or 'phone to know if he won't come,
and he always says he can't spare the time, or he can't afford it, or
something like that."

"Ain't he rich, Jimmie?"

"Well, no, not exactly. He may have some money put away, or left him by
some one. If he don't have I can't fer the life of me see how he lives.
But he certainly don't get it in fees. I often wonder where my salary
comes from, but it always does, regular as the clock."

"Jimmie, doesn't he have _any_ business at all?"

"Oh, yes he has business, but it ain't the paying kind. Fer instance,
there was a man in to-day trying to get his house back that another man
took away from him, and my boss _took the case_! He took it _right off
the bat_ without waiting to see whether the man could pay him anything
or not! He can't! He's only a poor laboring man, and a rich man stole
his house. Just out an' out stole it, you know. It's how he got rich.
Like as not we'll lose it, too, those rich men have so many ways of
crawling out of a thing and making it look nice to the world. Oh, he'll
get a fee, of course--twenty-five dollars, perhaps--but what's
twenty-five dollars, and like as not never get even the whole of that,
or have to wait for it? Why, it wouldn't keep _me_ in his office long!
Then there was a girl trying to get hold of the money her own father
left her, and her uncle frittered away and pertends it cost him all
that, and _he's_ been supporting _her_! Well, we took that, too, and we
won't get much out of that even if we do win. Then there come along one
of these here rich guys with a pocket full of money and a nice slick
tongue wanting to be protected from the law in some devilment, and _him
we turned down flat_! That's how it goes in our office. I can't just
figger out how it's coming out! But he's a good guy, a white man if
there ever was one!"

"I should say!" responded Jane with shining eyes. "Say, Jimmie, what's
the matter of us throwin' a little business in his way--real, payin'
business, I mean?"

"Fat chance!" said Jimmie dryly.

"You never can tell!" answered Jane dreamily. "I'm goin' to think about
it. Our fact'ry has lawyers sometimes. I might speak to the boss."

"Do!" said Jimmie sarcastically! "And have yer labor for yer pains!
We'll prob'ly turn _them_ down. Fact'ries are _always_ doing things they
hadn't ought to."

But Jane was silent and thoughtful, and they were presently lost in the
charms of Mary Pickford.

The evening papers came ou