"You must do your best, sir, for there is much at stake," said the client.
"Rely upon that. But don't give yourself a moment's uneasiness. A few years' experience at the bar is always enough to set aside your new beginners."
"I wonder if it can be my father's old apprentice?" the young lawyer remarked, after his client had gone.
"It's as likely as not," said his friend. "But would it not be a good joke if he gained the suit over you?"
"Never fear that."
"Well, we shall see!" laughingly exclaimed his friend.
On the next day James Wallace took his seat among the members of the bar, and marked with a keen interest and an air of intelligence all that passed. One or two of the lawyers noticed him kindly, but the majority—Lee among them, in particular—regarded him with coldness and distance. But nothing of this affected him, if indeed he noticed it at all.
The cause in which he had been retained, and which proved to be the first in which he took an active and prominent position in the court-room, came up within a week; for all parties interested in the result were anxious to come to trial, and therefore no legal obstacles were thrown in the way.
There was a profound silence, and a marked attention and interest, when the young stranger arose in the court-room to open the case. A smile of contempt, as he did so, curled the lip of Harman Lee; but Wallace saw it not. The prominent points of the case were presented in plain but concise language; and a few remarks bearing upon the merits of the case being made, the young lawyer took his seat, and gave room for the defendant's counsel to define his position.
Instantly Harman Lee was on his feet, and began referring to the points presented by his "very learned brother," in a flippant, contemptuous manner. There were those present who marked the light that kindled in the eye of Wallace, and the flash that passed over his countenance, at the first contemptuous word and tone that were uttered by his antagonist at the bar. These soon gave place to attention, and an air of conscious power. Once on his feet, with so flimsy a position to tear into tatters as that which his "learned brother" had presented, Lee seemed never to grow tired of the tearing process. Nearly an hour had passed away when he resumed his seat, with a look of exultation, which was followed by a pitying and contemptuous smile, as Wallace again slowly arose.