e mason from that first
time when she had discharged him from her employ. For he had those
qualities of vitality, expression, initiative that the younger branch of
the Clarks had exhausted. The Edward S. Clarks, transplanted fifty years
and more ago to new soil, may not have risen far in the human scale in
their new environment, but they had renewed there, at least in the
person of this young stone mason, their capacity for health and vigor.
Once more they had strong desires, will, and the courage to revolt
against the settled, the safe, the formal, and the proper. Of course,
this Clark was an anarchist! All strong blood must create some such
anarchists, if there is to be progress in this world.

It did not seem so preposterous to the judge, after these few hours of
contact with the mason, that Adelle should want to endow her cousin with
a part of that fortune which but for accident and legal formality would
have been his. There were, however, many other of these California
Clarks, in whom Adelle could not possibly be interested and who might
not be equally promising, but who would have to share her liberality
with the mason. It was a delicate tangle, as the judge realized when he
attempted to untie the knot.

"Mr. Clark," he began, sinking into the deep wing chair before his
fireplace, "I suppose your cousin has informed you of the results of her
interview with the Washington Trust Company?"

"Yes!" the young man emitted shortly, with an inquiring grin. "She said
there was nothing doing about our claim."

"The officers of the trust company were right so far as the law is
concerned, as I had to tell Mrs. Clark. The law is doubtless often slow
and bungling in its processes, but when it has once fully decided an
issue it is very loath to open it up again, especially when, as in this
case, litigation would involve hardship and injustice to a great many
innocent people."

"Well, I somehow thought it might be too late," the young mason
remarked, throwing himself loosely into the chair opposite the judge.
After a moment of reflection he added feelingly,--"The law is an
infernal contraption anyhow--it's always rigged so's the little feller
gets left."

"The law rigged it so that your cousin, who was a penniless girl, got a
thousand times more than her grandfather asked for his property," the
judge observed with a twinkle.

"She had the luck, that's all--and we other Clarks didn't!" the young
man replied.

"You can c