"My name is Marriott, Mr. Koerner, and this is Mr. Ward, Miss Elizabeth's brother. She said you wished to see me."
"You gom', huh?" said Koerner, fixing Marriott with his little blue eyes.
"Yes, I'm here at last," said Marriott. "Did you think I was never going to get here?" He drew up a chair and sat down. Dick took another chair, but leaned back and glanced about the room, as if to testify to his capacity of mere spectator. Mrs. Koerner stood beside her husband and folded her arms. The two children, hidden in their mother's skirts, cautiously emerged, a bit at a time, as it were, until they stood staring with wide, curious blue eyes at Marriott.
"You bin a lawyer, yet, huh?" asked Koerner severely.
"Yes, I'm a lawyer. Miss Ward said you wished to see a lawyer."
"I've blenty lawyers alreadty," said Koerner. "Der bin more as a dozen hier." He waved his pipe at the clock-shelf, where a little stack of professional cards told how many lawyers had solicited Koerner as a client. Marriott could have told the names of the lawyers without looking at their cards.
"Have you retained any of them?" asked Marriott.
"Huh?" asked Koerner, scowling.
"Did you hire any of them?"
"No, I tell 'em all to go to hell."