"The study of that branch of law must have had a peculiar fascination to you."
"Indeed, it did, Alex. At every point where the law draws the shield of its mercy around the accused, in thought it seemed made for one or another of my friends, and, mentally, I found myself defending one after the other of them."
"Did you, at the same time, keep in thought the fact that in an emergency the law permits a man to plead his own cause?"
"Never, on my honor. In those days my life was circumspect, even as it now is, and my associates—not as now—were so genteel that there was no danger of any suspicion attaching to me, because of the people I was daily seen with."
"That was good for you, but what sort of reputations did your associates have?" asked Alex.
"They went on from glory to glory. One became a conductor on a railroad, and in four years, at a salary of one hundred dollars per month, retired rich. One became a bank cashier, and three years later, through the advice of his physicians, settled in the soft climate of Venice, with which country we have no extradition treaty. Another one is a broker here in this city, and I am told, is doing so well that he hopes next year to be superintendent of a mine."
"Why have you not succeeded better, Colonel, financially?"
"I am too honest. Every day I stop law suits which I ought to permit to go on. Every day I do work for nothing which I ought to charge for. I tell you, Alex, I would sooner be right than be President."
"I cannot, just now, recall any one who knows you, Colonel, who does not feel the same way about you."
"That is because the most of my friends are dull, men, like yourself. But how prospers that newspaper?"