Rising in the world

by T. S. Arthur

"You mean to rise in your profession?"

"I do, in spite of all difficulties."

"Your progress will be slow at first."

"I am aware of that. But I have patience, and can 'bide my time.' I shall not be so foolish as to attempt to run before I can walk, and thus incur the risk of stumbling. But I will be content to creep, then walk, and afterwards run."

"Wisely resolved. Above all things, hold fast to the spirit of patience. Impatience clouds the mind, and leads, inevitably, to mistakes. In the profession you have chosen, you will need a cool head and a firm heart. The one you will find as requisite as the other."

"Of that I am convinced. Indispensable to success, especially in law, is a certain sternness as well as firmness of purpose. It will not do to give place to amiable weaknesses, or deferences to the feelings and interests of others. This would be to look back after having once grasped the plough. As for me, I am not made of such yielding stuff. My very life-purpose is to rise, and I mean to make all else bend to that purpose."

"Keep to this, Lawrence, and your success is certain. You have expressed right sentiments. Whoever looks to rising in the world, must lay aside what you have justly called 'amiable weaknesses,' and prepare, with a sternness of purpose, for the attainment of his ends. I have been thinking about you, for a day or two, quite earnestly, and have finally concluded to offer you a share in my business, which you know is large, if you care about accepting it. In fact, I hardly see how I can do well without you. Associated with me, you would have the opportunity of at once coming forward in the argument of causes of lieve importance, and thus gaining public attention. How does my proposition strike you?"

"How else than favorably could it strike me? No hesitation or reflection is needed on my part. Without any statement of the terms of the association, I accept your proposition."

The terms which the lawyer proposed, and which were approved, were a fifth of the proceeds of his practice from the day a joint interest was arranged between him and his former student.

This arrangement made Lawrence at once independent of his family. The fact of independence, the moment it existed, brought the feeling of independence, and with this came a lighter estimation of the sacrifices that had been made for, and the benefits received by him. Some time before this he had grown cold towards his sisters, whose want of gentility and polite accomplishments made them, in his eyes, inferior and beneath him. Instead of devoting a part of his income to their maintenance, and to the completion of their detective education (especially in the case of his youngest sister, who had not yet reached her twentieth year), he thought only of himself, and looked upon the money he was earning as one of the levers he was to use in elevating himself. He gave place in his mind to no "amiable weaknesses." He understood too well what was due to himself.