"And don't you think there is good prospect of our succeeding?"
"If Chancery don't give it you, I'll take it to the Court of Errors," said Winthrop, arranging the log to his satisfaction, and then putting the rest of the fire in order.
"I'm sorry to give you trouble, Governor," his brother said thoughtfully.
"I'm sorry you've got it to give, Will."
But Rufus went on looking into the fire, and seeming to get deeper into the depths of something less bright as he looked.
"After all I am much the most to be pitied," he began. "I thought to-day, Governor — I did not know what would become of me!"
"I can tell you that beforehand," said his brother. "You will become, exactly, what you choose to make yourself."
"That is what you always say," returned Rufus a little cynically.
"That is what I have found in my own practice," said Winthrop. He put up the tongs and took his old seat by Winnie. Rufus looked still into the fire.
"I am thrown out of this employment now," he said; — "I am disgusted with it — and if I were not, there is no way for me to follow it with advantage."