nished. He laughed indulgently, threw up
his hands with a helpless gesture and followed Roderick into the
office. And before he stated his business he spent a half-hour telling
how much his daughter was to him and how grateful he was to Roderick
for what he had done.

Roderick's eyes shone when the new work was laid before him. It was a
big thing, bigger than had ever come the way of that little office in
all the years it had done business in Algonquin. It fired his ambition
to make good. The shrewd business man saw the look in the young
lawyer's eye, and he did not regret the step Leslie had forced him to
take.

"If you see that those rascals don't get the better of us, Mr. McRae,"
he said in parting, "I need not tell you that you will profit by it as
well as ourselves."

Roderick thanked him for his trust. "When Mr. Brians comes in--" he
commenced, but his client interrupted.

"I want it to be distinctly understood that this is your work entirely,
Mr. McRae," he said. "Mr. Brians will understand."

Lawyer Ed did understand, and laughed long and loud over what he called
Sandy Graham's extreme Scotchness. But he was vastly pleased that
Roderick was to have a chance of showing what he could do, and that the
wide business interests of Graham and Company were to be once more in
their hands.

And now Roderick plunged into work with all his might. When the news
spread that Graham and Co. had given a big transaction into the hands
of Lawyer Ed's young partner, others followed. Lawyer Ed himself was a
shrewd advocate, but every one knew that his business tendencies ran on
certain lines. His chief concern had always been to settle family
troubles, rather than to make money out of them. Many a puzzled farmer
he had saved from losing in an unjust bargain when the opposite course
would have meant money for himself. Many a family on the verge of
disintegration over a will had been brought together and made happy,
because their lawyer was more bent on their welfare than his own.
Roderick intended fully to keep up the fine old standards of the firm
as far as possible. But he was determined to be much more than the
legal adviser of all the folk living around Algonquin who couldn't do
business themselves.

He took his mid-day meal at the Algonquin House, the leading hotel, and
won the favour of Mr. Crofter, the proprietor. And there came to the
office of Brians and McRae one day, much to the senior partner's
am