“No, sir; sharpened them; ready for another,” Earle responded, in the same strain, to carry out the poor joke.
“You’ll do; I would like you for a son; wish I had a daughter—you should marry her;” and the little man, with his characteristic bob of the head, turned and went his way, while Earle, musing upon the events of the day returned to his office, but thinking that if his client happened to have a daughter, he might wish to be excused from a nearer relationship to him, notwithstanding the now plethoric state of his money-bags.
The next morning he received a check for five thousand dollars from the eccentric man, together with an expression of gratitude for his faithful services. And this was the foundation—the “foundation laid with his own hands”—which Earle now began to build upon.
There were no more idle days for him. Work poured in upon him from every side. Success brought countless friends, where before he had not possessed one and he bade fair ere long to fulfill Richard Forrester’s prediction concerning him—that he had a brilliant career before him.
CHAPTER XIII
WILL HE BEAR THE TEST
Editha knew something of all this, for she read the papers, and at the termination of the trial enough could not be said of the brilliant victory which the young lawyer had achieved.
She was at Newport, but she would gladly have returned to the city with her father to attend the trial had she known of it in season.
But he had merely said he was obliged to go home upon business, which she judged upon his return must have been of an unpleasant nature, since for several days afterward he was morose and in every way disagreeable.
Every one remarked how much more beautiful Miss Dalton was this summer than the preceding one.
Many attributed it to the change in her dress, as she no longer refused to wear colors, and her wardrobe was remarkable for its taste and elegance, while others said her sorrow was wearing away and her spirits were returning.