features. He hitched his chin higher and squared
his ponderous shoulders. "I am not forgotten--no, damn it--no!" he
exulted under his breath, "recalls me with sincere esteem and considers
my services to the country as well worthy of recognition--" the judge
breathed deep. What would Mahaffy find to say now! Certainly this was
well calculated to disturb the sour cynicism of his friend. His bleared
eyes brimmed. After all his groping he had touched hands with the
realities at last! Even a federal judgeship, though not an office of the
first repute in the south had its dignity--it signified something! He
would make Solomon his clerk! The judge reached for his hat. Mahaffy
must know at once that fortune had mended for them. Why, at that moment
he was actually in receipt of an income!

He sat down, the better to enjoy the unique sensation. Taxes were being
levied and collected with no other end in view than his stipend--his
ardent fancy saw the whole machinery of government in operation for his
benefit. It was a singular feeling he experienced. Then promptly his
spendthrift brain became active. He needed clothes--so did Mahaffy--so
did his grandson; they must take a larger house; he would buy himself a
man servant; these were pressing necessities as he now viewed them.

Once again he reached for his hat, the desire to rush off to Belle Plain
was overmastering.

"I reckon I'd be justified in hiring a conveyance from Pegloe," he
thought, but just here he had a saving memory of his unfinished task;
that claimed precedence and he resumed his pen.

An hour later Pegloe's black boy presented himself to the judge. He
came bearing a gift, and the gift appropriately enough was a square
case bottle of respectable size. The judge was greatly touched by
this attention, but he began by making a most temperate use of the
tavern-keeper's offering; then as the formidable document he was
preparing took shape under his hand he more and more lost that feeling
of Spartan fortitude which had at first sustained him in the presence of
temptation. He wrote and sipped in complete and quiet luxury, and when
at last he had exhausted the contents of the bottle it occurred to him
that it would be only proper personally to convey his thanks to Pegloe.
Perhaps he was not uninspired in this by ulterior hopes; if so, they
were richly rewarded. The resources of the City Tavern were suddenly
placed at his disposal. He attributed this to a variety of causes