“I do suppose association with a brother in the law, and in a case of life and death, is something like matrimony, Dr. McBrain. A good deal must be taken for granted, and not a little on credit. As a man is bound to believe his wife the most excellent, virtuous, most amiable and best creature on earth, so is a counsel bound to consider his client innocent. The relation, in each case, is confidential, however; and I shall not pry into your secrets, any more than I shall betray one of my own.”
“I asked for none, and wish none; but one may express surprise at the intense degree of excitement that prevails all through Duke’s, and even in the adjacent counties.”
“The murder of a man and his wife in cold blood, accompanied by robbery and arson, are enough to arouse the community. In this particular case the feeling of interest is increased, I make no doubt, by the extraordinary character, as well as by the singular mystery, of the party accused. I have had many clients, Ned, but never one like this before; as you have had many wives, but no one so remarkable as the present Mrs. McBrain.”
“Your time will come yet, Master Dunscomb—recollect I have always prognosticated that.”
“You forget that I am approaching sixty. A man’s heart is as hard and dry as a bill in chancery at that age—but, I beg your pardon, Ned; you are an exception.”
“I certainly believe that a man can have affections, even at four-score—and what is more, I believe that when the reason and judgment come in aid of the passions——”
Dunscomb laughed outright; nay, he even gave a little shout, his bachelor habits having rendered him more exuberant in manner than might otherwise have been the case.
“Passions!” he cried, rubbing his hands, and looking round for Timms, that he might have some one to share in what he regarded as a capital joke. “The passions of a fellow of three-score! Ned, you do not flatter yourself that you have been marrying the Widow Updyke in consequence of any passion you feel for her?”
“I do, indeed,” returned the Doctor, with spirit; mustering resolution to carry the war into the enemy’s country—“Let me tell you, Tom Dunscomb, that a warm-hearted fellow can love a woman dearly, long after the age you have mentioned—that is, provided he has not let all feeling die within him, for want of watering a plant that is the most precious boon of a most gracious Providence.”
“Ay, if he begin at twenty, and keep even pace with his beloved down the descent of time.”