“Not a syllable. I could not speak to her on the subject, you know——”
“Why not?” demanded Anna, quickly.
“Why not?—You’ve no notion, Anna, of the kind of person this Miss Monson is. You cannot talk to her as you would to an every-day sort of young lady; and, now she is in such distress, one is naturally more cautious about saying anything to add to her sorrow.”
“Yes, I can understand that,” returned the generous-minded girl; “and I think you are very right to remember all this, on every occasion. Still, it is so natural for a female to lean on her friends, in every great emergency, I cannot but wonder that your client——”
“Don’t call her my client, Anna, I beg of you. I hate the word as applied to this lady. If I serve her in any degree, it is solely as a friend. The same feeling prevails with Uncle Tom; for I understand he has not received a cent of Miss Monson’s money, though she is liberal of it to profuseness. Timms is actually getting rich on it.”
“Is it usual for you gentlemen of the bar to give their services gratuitously to those who can pay for them?”
“As far from it as possible,” returned Jack, laughing. “We look to the main chance like so many merchants or brokers, and seldom open our mouths without shutting our hearts. But this is a case altogether out of the common rule; and Mr. Dunscomb works for love, and not for money.”
Had Anna cared less for John Wilmeter, she might have said something clever about the nephew’s being in the same category as the uncle; but her feelings were too deeply interested to suffer her even to think what would seem to her profane. After a moment’s pause, therefore, she quietly said—
“I believe you have intimated that Mr. Timms is not quite so disinterested?”
“Not he—Miss Monson has given him fees amounting to a thousand dollars, by his own admission; and the fellow has had the conscience to take the money. I have remonstrated about his fleecing a friendless woman in this extravagant manner; but he laughs in my face for my pains. Timms has good points, but honesty is not one of them. He says no woman can be friendless who has a pretty face, and a pocket full of money.”