as two
scoundrels. He got so worked up over the case that Paula had to laugh.
Only one person was not convinced of his sincerity and that was Mr.
Ricaby. The lawyer was not blind to the fact that the young man was
paying Paula a good deal of attention, and he would have been more than
human had he not resented it.

Thus in a way Paula was happy. In the day time she had her work among
her poor, and the evening she gave up to reading or music. Sometimes Tod
would drop in, and, with Mr. Ricaby, they would have an enjoyable
evening. On rare occasions Harry and Mrs. Parkes would be invited to
join the little circle.

Then came the trial with all its annoyances, all its brutalities. It was
a terrible ordeal for the young girl, and there were times when, utterly
worn out and discouraged, she felt it was beyond her strength to go on.
The opposite side had no mercy on her. Bascom Cooley was not the kind of
man to spare anyone, woman or child. There were no lies and calumnies
that a devilish ingenuity and brazen impudence could invent that he did
not concoct in order to attack the new will. To discredit the new
claimant, he grossly insulted her; to belittle the will, he calumniated
the dead man. He produced witnesses who swore on the stand that John
Marsh, of late years, was an entirely changed man, irresponsible for his
actions. They testified that he not only drank himself to death, but
that he acted irrationally and was clean out of his mind. Physicians in
Cooley's employ gave corroborative evidence, with some modifications.
Mr. Cooley, triumphant, argued that his client, Mr. James Marsh, had
amply proved his claim. He alone was entitled to the estate under the
original will which was executed at a time when the deceased was in
possession of all his faculties. If, thundered the lawyer, the second
will was not a damnable forgery--and significantly he added, they had
not yet had time to go into that phase of it--it was the work of a crazy
man. He would go still further----

Now he did a horrible thing. Not content with vilifying the father, he
besmirched the character of Paula's mother. Granted, he shouted, that
John Marsh was not crazy--even then the girl had no legal claim to the
estate, for she was illegitimate. John Marsh never married her mother!

Instantly Mr. Ricaby was on his feet with an indignant protest. Was it
not scandal enough, he cried hotly, that members of the bar should
prostitute their profession by puttin