“Spoken like a man, Henry! Spoken like a man!” he said, warmly. “I only wish that Ralph had something of your spirit. I have seen you a little out of your right position, I believe; but a closer view is correcting the error.”
Wallingford returned the pressure as warmly as it was given, saying, as he did so—
“I am aware, Judge, that you have suffered your mind to fall into a state of prejudice in regard to me. But I am not aware of any thing in my conduct towards you or others, to warrant the feeling. If in any thing I have been brought into opposition, faithfulness to the interests I represented has been the rule of my conduct. I have sought by no trick of law to gain an advantage. The right and the just I have endeavored to pursue, without fear and without favor. Can you give me a better rule for professional or private life?”
“I cannot, Henry,” was the earnest reply. “And if all men would so pursue the right and the just, how different would be the result for each, as the sure adjustment of advancing years gave them their true places in the world's observation!”
The Judge spoke in a half—absent way, and with a shade of regret in his tones; Wallingford noted this with a feeling of concern.
“Let us be friends in the future,” he added, again offering his hand to Wallingford.
“It will be your fault, not mine, if we are not fast fiends, Judge. I have never forgotten the obligations of my boyhood; and never ceased to regret the alienation you have shown. To have seemed in your eyes ungrateful, has been a source of pain whenever I saw or thought of you.”
The two men parted, each feeling better for the interview. A day or two afterwards Wallingford received a note from Judge Bigelow asking him, as a particular favor, to call at his office that evening. He went, of course. The Judge was alone, and received him cordially. But, his countenance soon fell into an expression of more than usual gravity.
“Mr. Wallingford,” he said, after the passage of a few casual observations, “I would like to consult you in strict confidence on some matters in which I have become involved. I can trust you, of course?”
“As fully as if the business were my own,” was the unhesitating answer.