aditions of
Lincoln and Daniel Webster all to that effect: work all day with the ax,
and study in the light of pine knots all night?"

He took her words as lightly as they were spoken. "Something like that.
But I'm no Daniel Webster; I'm not sure I want to go in for criminal law
at all."

She spoke, sharply. "You mustn't think of getting your fees too easy,
Ben. I don't think any good lawyer wins without work. Do you?"

"I didn't mean that," he hastened to say. "You do me an injustice. I
really read more than you think, and my memory is tenacious, you know.
Besides, I can't refuse to give the Haneys the most of my time; for they
are my only clients, and the Captain is most generous."

"The mornings ought to be enough," she hazarded.

"I know what you mean. I do go out with them afternoons a good deal, but
I consider that a part of my duty. They are so helpless socially. You've
always felt that yourself."

"I feel it now, Bennie boy, but we mustn't neglect all friends for them.
Other people don't know that you do this as a matter of business, and of
course you can't tell any one; for if the Haneys heard of it they would
be cut to the heart. Do they put it on a business basis?"

"They never mention it. Bertha isn't given to talking subtleties, as you
know, and the Captain takes it all as it comes these days."

It hurt her to hear him speak of Mrs. Haney in that off-hand, habitual
way, and she foretold further misconception on the part of Mrs. Crego in
case he should forget--as he was likely to do--and allude to "Bertha" in
her presence. But how could she tell him not to do that? She merely
said: "I like Mrs. Haney, and I feel sorry for her--I mean I'm sorry she
can't have a place in the town to which she is really entitled. She is
improving very rapidly."

"Isn't she!" he cried out. "That little thing is reading right through
the town library--a book every other day, she tells me."

"Novels, I fear."

"No; that's the remarkable thing. She's reading history and biography.
Isn't it too bad she couldn't have had Bryn Mawr or Vassar? I've advised
her to have in some one of the university people to coach her. I've
suggested Miss Franklin. I wish you'd uphold me in it."

He had never told Alice of the talk in the garden that day, nor of the
look in Bertha's eyes which decided him to assume the position of mentor
as well as legal adviser, and he did not now intimate more than a casual
supervision of her reading. As