"Mr. Malcolm, will you leave my office instantly?" said the lawyer, smothering his excitement under a calmness of tone, and rising to his feet as he spoke.
"Don't get excited, Mr. Dunbar," replied Malcolm, retaining his seat. "This is a business of some importance and needs coolness in its settlement. I have demanded nothing but what is right, and nothing but what I mean to have. I will give you until to-morrow afternoon at four o'clock to deliberate upon the matter, and then if you do not present me with the clerk's receipt for that bill of costs, and with two thousand dollars to pay off my debts, I will instantly commence a suit against you and Harrison's lawyer for a conspiracy to defraud me, in which something about a demurrer will come out that will not be very pleasant to you or to him, as you both too well know."
Dunbar sank down in his chair as if suddenly deprived of strength, while the perspiration started upon his forehead.
"For heaven's sake! What do you mean?" he exclaimed, taken so completely by surprise as to be thrown off his guard.
"Simply what I say," replied Malcolm, as coolly and firmly as at first. "I have heard from Mr. Harrison all about the bribe you accepted, and received out of your own pocket. So you needn't imagine that I am trying to frighten you with a bugbear. Pay the loss you have occasioned me, and I have done with you for ever; if not, I will obtain damages. To-morrow at four o'clock I will call, and if you are prepared to make all right—well; and if not—well; at least so far as I am concerned. Good morning."
And Malcolm retired from the office of Dunbar, leaving the attorney more than half stupified, yet in the fullest possession of every word that had been uttered.
When Malcolm called on the next day at the hour named, he received all that he had demanded.
The star of Lawrence Dunbar's rising fortunes had already reached its point of culmination—young as he was, and possessed of brilliant talents and a mind well stored with professional lore—and was now beginning its rapid descent. He had erred in supposing that, separated from Mr. Harker, he could take a high position at the bar. In this he had overrated himself. Only a few petty cases came into his hands besides the case of Malcolm, which he managed so badly. The flaw left in his client's bill in this case was so palpable, that the whole bar expressed astonishment at the glaring oversight. It hurt his reputation seriously.
But, when a whisper of the truth began to be heard, first here, then there, and then everywhere among those who knew him, his star set in the horizon of Philadelphia. So flagrant a violation of all honest principles met its just rebuke. He stood alone. No man of honor and respectability showed him any attentions or passed him the compliment of an invitation to his house. There was a ban upon him; so much so that men pointed at him in the streets and related the story of his affair with old Mr. Harrison. In less than a year there was a public sale of his elegant furniture in Arch street, and he moved somewhere South with his wife. Of his domestic felicity nothing need be said. Enough can be imagined.