“Which is drawing very near, ’Squire; and I have some facts to communicate in that affair which it may be well to compare with the law, without much more delay.”
“Let us finish this bottle—if the boys help us, it will not be much more than a glass apiece.”
“I don’t think the ’Squire will ever be upheld at the polls by the Temperance people,” said Timms, filling his glass to the brim; for, to own the truth, it was seldom that he got such wine.
“As you are expecting to be held up by them, my fine fellow. I’ve heard of your management, master Timms, and am told you aspire as high as the State Senate. Well; there is room for better, but much worse men have been sent there. Now, let us go to what I call the ‘Rattletrap office.’”
CHAPTER XI.
“The strawberry grows underneath the nettle;
And wholesome berries thrive and ripen best,
Neighbour’d by fruit of baser quality.”
King Henry V.
There stood a very pretty pavilion in one of the groves of Rattletrap, overhanging the water, with the rock of the river-shore for its foundation. It had two small apartments, in one of which Dunscomb had caused a book-case, a table, a rocking-chair and a lounge to be placed. The other was furnished more like an ordinary summer-house, and was at all times accessible to the inmates of the family. The sanctum, or office, was kept locked; and here its owner often brought his papers, and passed whole days, during the warm months, when it is the usage to be out of town, in preparing his cases. To this spot, then, the counsellor now held his way, attended by Timms, having ordered a servant to bring a light and some segars; smoking being one of the regular occupations of the office. In a few minutes, each of the two men of the law had a segar in his mouth, and was seated at a little window that commanded a fine view of the Hudson, its fleet of sloops, steamers, tow-boats and colliers, and its high, rocky western shore, which has obtained the not inappropriate name of the Palisades.