I.

Mrs. Tarbell sat in her office, pretending to read a law-journal, but

really looking at her name on the office door; and she was not without

justification, perhaps, seeing that it had taken her six years to get it

there. Furthermore, though it was six weeks since it had been lettered

upon the glass panel, she had as yet found nothing to do but look at it.

She was at last a lawyer; she had triumphed over prejudice and ridicule;

and a young lawyer has three privileges,--he may write Esquire after his

name, he is exempt from jury duty, and he can wait for clients. Mrs.

Tarbell had always been exempt from jury duty, and her brother told her

that, historically speaking, she ought to be called _equestrienne_, if

she was to have any title: so it seemed that it was only left to her to

wait for clients and contemplate her sign. The sign read,--

Ellen G. Tarbell,

Alex. H. Juddson,

Attorneys-at-Law.

Commissioner for Colorado.

Mrs. Tarbell had been a Miss Juddson before her marriage with ---- Tarbell,

Esq. (of Hinson & Tarbell, mourning goods), and Mr. Alexander H.

Juddson was her brother. When Mr. Tarbell died, his widow told her

family and friends that she was going to read law.

Mrs. Tarbell had always been a woman of progressive notions, but this

was going too far. Her family and some of her friends were short-sighted

enough to attempt to argue the general question,--namely, ought women to

have Rights? When Mrs. Tarbell proved to them that they were both unfair

and illogical, they then said that, though they had no objection to

other women making lawyers of themselves, they did not see the necessity

in her case.

Mrs. Tarbell replied that she must get a living; and it was quite true

that the late Tarbell had failed a few months before his death, leaving

his widow rather poorly off; for he had not put his property in her name

before making an assignment. And Mrs. Tarbell went on to say that, as

she could not be a nurse, and would not be a governess or keep a

boarding-house, she would read law. It was reported at the time that Mr.

Juddson said he hoped his sister would go and read law, if anywhere, in

Colorado, for which State it was he, of course, who was the

commissioner; but, whether this report were true or not, Mrs. Tarbell

stayed at home and pursued her studies under his direction.

After going through all sorts of examinations, at which she flung

herself determinedly, and which she kept on passing with the greatest

credit, after meeting with innumerable disappointments and delays, after

being politely told by one judge after another that she was a woman, and

therefore could not be a man,--hence, _a fortiori_, she could not be a

lawyer,--after six years, I say, Mrs. Tarbell succeeded. Her name went

on the list of attorneys. The court-clerk gave her a certificate, and

received two dollars and sixty cents. The newspapers chronicled the

circumstance. Her friends were triumphant. Judge Measy, who admitted her

to the bar, was compared to Lord Mansfield and to Mr. Lincoln.

But marriage is not the only lofty undertaking attended by petty

miseries. Mrs. Tarbell could bear her great misfortunes with courage and

resolution: as she had great hopes, so she expected great disasters. Not

Lars Porsenna of Clusium himself was more clapped on the back, and

huzzahed after, and backed up by the augurs, nor more frequently told

that he was the beloved of heaven, than Mrs. Tarbell had been by her

soothsayers and partisans. At first this was all very well, but

afterward it grew tiresome. If Mrs. Tarbell, emerging from widowhood and

placing herself in the van of feminine progress, was really a pioneer in

a heaven sent mission (as perhaps she was), there was no need to repeat

the phrase so often. When two or three years had gone by, and it began

to be apparent that Mrs. Tarbell had a long and up-hill struggle before

her, she became very impatient of enthusiasm. She had never liked it,

even when the female welkin (if there be such a thing) had first rung

with applause for her, and now it was painfully uncomfortable. Mrs.

Lucretia Pegley (authoress of "Woman's Wrongs," "The Weaker Sex?" "Eve

_v._ Adam," etc., etc., editor of "Woman's Sphere," and chief

contributor to the "Coming Era;" her friends called her a Boadicea, and

denied that she had withdrawn from the study of medicine because she had

fainted at her first operation),--Mrs. Pegley observed her friend's

shortness of temper, and took her to task about it. "Ellen Tarbell," she

said, "you surprise me very much. Do you wish to give the impression

that your motives are purely personal and--forgive me, but the word is

necessary--selfish? that you have no interest in the movement in which

you are a pioneer? that your heart is not with the cause which after so

many years of weary waiting looks to you for advancement? Mr. Botts is a

most worthy and indefatigable man; perhaps a trifle too much addicted to

repetition for the sake of rhetorical effect,--a thing, I admit, very

trying; but it is of the highest importance (I say this between

ourselves, of course, and you may imagine that I would not give

publicity to such a statement),--it is of the _highest_ importance that

the feelings of our--hem--masculine colleagues should not be--"

"Yes, yes," interrupted Mrs. Tarbell hastily, "I appreciate that fully,

I assure you. But yesterday evening I was rather tired, and I--"

"Tired!" said Mrs. Pegley, in the voice of acute anguish which caused

her to be known as a woman of the most extraordinary intensity of

convictions. "It is a wonder we are not all in our _graves_," she added,

in tones whose sombre depth was brightened by a little colloquial

levity, for she felt that she had been too severe with Mrs. Tarbell.

"Still," she continued, "after Mr. Bott's _very_ flattering remarks you

might have spoken with a little more--er--_earnestness_ and--er--_vigor_

yourself, you know. And for such an audience as we had last night, three

minutes is really--"

After this, Mrs. Tarbell resolved that her next effort at public

speaking should be made before an American jury, or not at all. Indeed,

she went so far as to think it a great mistake to suppose that woman's

cause could not be advanced without calling meetings and haranguing them

till eleven o'clock at night. Very likely her ideals were still of the

highest order, and certainly she still hoped that when women were

allowed to practise law the law would be so changed that you would

hardly recognize it; but she wanted to carry on her part of the work

occultly and quietly. She had got over a good many of her own illusions,

and she was taking a more practical view of life. She smiled when she

thought of the prophecies which had been made about her, and she no

longer read the paragraphs about herself in the newspapers. She kept her

brother's dockets and drew his papers. Alexander frowned a good deal,

and said it wasn't necessary, but she insisted that she must pay him in

some way for her education. She put his desk in order and gave him new

papers every other day, which practices he never could get her to

forego. In short, she settled down into a routine of study, office-work,

and regularly recurring attempts to _get in_. And when she finally did

get in, she had become a cynic. Everybody remembers, of course, how at

the end of his last term Judge Oldwigg announced his intention to retire

into private life and decline a reelection, and how the managers of the

party in power chose Judge Measy as their candidate for the vacant

place. The prospective judge was waited on privately by a deputation of

Mrs. Tarbell's friends, headed by Mrs. Pegley, and asked to define his

position on the Tarbell question. The deputation did not contain many

voters, and no bargain which Mr. Measy, as he then was, could have made

with it would have increased his majority very largely: as he was pretty

sure of a majority, he must be cleared of all suspicion of making a

bargain. But he did deliver to Mrs. Pegley an oracular answer, which was

in course of time interpreted in Mrs. Tarbell's favor. She came up

before him; Mr. Juddson made the motion which he had so often made

before, and made it, I regret to say, in rather hurried tones, when, to

everybody's surprise, Judge Measy produced a manuscript and read it out,

and proved that a lawyer was a person who practiced law, and that

therefore, as a woman was a person, she could be a lawyer, interspersing

his remarks with graceful historical allusions and several profound

reflections upon the design of Nature in creating the female sex. Then,

acting as man, not judge, he descended to the side-bar, beckoned to Mrs.

Tarbell, grasped her by the hand, and made her a speech. "Madam," said

the courtly judge, "Mrs. Tarbell, I congratulate you,"--which was one

for himself as well,--"and let me add that it gives me the sincerest

satisfaction to be able to testify in this manner to the veneration

which I have always entertained for woman; and I am quite sure that in

no long space of time you will have proved to us that the law cannot say

it has nothing to gain from her refining influence. For I remember my

_own_ mother, Mrs. Tarbell," said Judge Measy. The bar listened in awed

admiration. Mrs. Tarbell bit her lips, bowed, and thanked his honor as

best she could. The idea of suggesting that she was anybody's mother, or

that even if she had a family that was any reason for permitting her to

be a barrister! But from the other side of the court-room was heard an

expressive rustling, and audible whispers of satisfaction were wafted

across the lawyers on their chairs. Mrs. Pegley and her train were

sitting by, radiant, triumphant, majestic. The dignity of motherhood was

vindicated.

And now that Juddson and Tarbell were moving to their new offices, who

should also at the very same time become a tenant of the Land and Water

Insurance Company but the Honorable Franklin Blood Pope? The Land and

Water Company's new building was in a very desirable locality, and

several lawyers deserted their old nooks and corners to occupy its

spacious and well-calcimined apartments. Juddson and Tarbell took the

rooms on the back of the third floor, Mr. Pope those on the front ditto:

they were very near neighbors. In former days Mrs. Tarbell had often

complained to her husband of Mr. Pope's success. It was an argument that

men had not as much common sense as they pretended to have, she said, or

else they would see through Franklin B----'s absurd pretensions. "Even I

can perceive that the man is a humbug," she continued. "In fact, any

woman could. Why is he successful, then? Why has he an enormous

practice? Why has he been sent to Congress? If it is because he has a

majestic appearance and can talk a great deal, women certainly can

fulfill these conditions, and that by your own account of them."

To which Mr. Tarbell would answer, "Exactly, my love, by all means; and

so is your friend Mrs. Pegley a great talker, and a fine-looking woman."

"Then give her all the rights you give to Mr. Pope," cried Mrs. Tarbell.

"She shall have 'em, and welcome," said Tarbell; but he did not tell his

wife that he had voted for Mr. Pope on the opposition ticket, and had

even consulted him on matters of business,--once going so far as to

suggest to him that a certain proposed alteration in the tariff would

seriously affect the mourning-goods industry,--from which it may be

gathered that it was not from any lack of prudence that Mr. Tarbell died

a bankrupt and left his widow to become a lady-lawyer.

Mr. Pope himself it was who betrayed Mr. Tarbell's confidence and opened

Mrs. Tarbell's eyes. "Your husband was my very good friend, my dear

madam," said the Honorable Franklin, "and I was proud to call him my

client. Yes, I had the honor of advising him in several matters and of

carrying through some rather delicate negotiations for him. A man of the

strictest integrity, ever genial and urbane, of sound judgment and

independent views, endowed with strong common sense and quick

perceptions. You see, I had the highest opinion of Mr. Tarbell, and have

often wished to tell his widow--alas that I should have to call her

so!--how certain I am that she will succeed in the career she has

chosen, and how deeply I grieve that her husband could not have lived to

find in her a better adviser than I ever could have been to him."

Messrs.--I mean Mrs. and Mr.--Tarbell and Juddson were just moving into

their new offices when Mr. Pope uttered these kind wishes. He met Mrs.

Tarbell on the door-step: he was standing there, indeed, when she came

in. He was always standing on the door-step: he carried on most of his

business, especially with the politicians, in public. "I beg that you

will use my library on all occasions," he continued, raising his voice

a little. "If I may say so myself, it is rather comprehensive; in fact,

I am very proud of it. And any assistance which I can give you in any

way, my dear madam, will, I need hardly say, be given most heartily."

Use his library, indeed! Mrs. Tarbell would have been as likely to go to

the Vatican and ask Pope Leo for the loan of a few works _contra

hæreticos_. Why had she and her brother ever come to the Land and Water

Company's building? The idea of meeting the Honorable Pope every day, of

every day beholding his portly figure, statesman-like features, and lion

mane, and acknowledging his bland bows and salutations, was

inexpressibly odious. And, what was worse, Mr. Pope continued to

flourish like a green bay-tree, or like the proprietors of a patent

medicine or a blackguard newspaper, or any other comparison you please.

Feet tramped along the hall, hands knocked at his door, lips innumerable

whispered into his ears, and Mrs. Tarbell sat and looked at her sign,

wondering what had become of all the women who were to have employed

her. She had not said, "Walk in, madam," to one of them; and Mr.

Juddson's clients all regarded her as if she were a curiosity.

Mrs. Tarbell looked, in fact, like the president of a Dorcas society or

a visitor of a church hospital. She had pleasing features, dark hair,

slightly touched with gray, as became a lawyer of thirty-five, and

dignified manners. She dressed very plainly in a black dress with just

one row of broad trimming down the front, and, though she felt that it

was an abuse of authority, she drew her hair straight back from her

forehead. This question of her hair had given her some little anxiety,

and it had cost her some time to decide what kind of hat or bonnet she

should wear. Alexander said she might use her riding-hat for the sake of

economy, but she had decided on a tweed walking-hat, which could be

taken off very quickly in the court-room. For, whatever she might do in

church, it was now impossible for her to remain covered before the bench

of judges.

Mrs. Tarbell's desk was in the middle of the back room,--she could just

see the outer door obliquely through that of her partition,--and Mr.

Juddson's was in a similar position in the front room. This was not a

very good arrangement. Mrs. Tarbell could not very well be put in the

front room with the office-boy, and yet the proximity of the office-boy

was not agreeable to Mr. Juddson either. Then, too, most of the books

were in the back room, and so was the sofa: altogether it looked as if

Mrs. Tarbell were the senior. Mr. Juddson was thinking seriously of

having another partition built, and that would at any rate save him from

being asked "if Mr. Juddson were in," for, as every one knows, there is

a vast difference between being asked "if Mr. Juddson be in," and "is

this Mr. Juddson?" But Mr. Juddson had the picture of Chief-Justice

Marshall and the map of the battle-field of Gettysburg, so he was not so

badly off; and Mrs. Tarbell was very comfortable.

She was just musing over her future, and saying to herself, "When I die,

I _know_ that they will call a bar-meeting, and that Mr. Pope will make

a eulogy on my character," when the door opened, and Mr. Juddson came

in. Mrs. Tarbell returned to business-life immediately.

"Did you find Mullany?" she said.

Mr. Juddson, a tall, black-whiskered man of about fifty, rubbed his

hands for a moment over the fire, and then answered shortly that he

_had_ found Mullany.

"What did he say?"

"Oh,--what I expected," said Mr. Juddson, turning over the papers on his

table. He disliked unnecessary questions. Mrs. Tarbell had no interest

in Mullany, and the most she ought to do was to ask about him in an

off-hand way in the street-car on the way home. Mr. Juddson discovered

the paper for which he was searching, and turned toward the door.

"Are you going out?" said Mrs. Tarbell.

The door was already half open.

"Reference before Murray. Back at one," was all Mr. Juddson deigned to

say.

"Alexander!" cried Mrs. Tarbell,--when the office-boy was in, she called

her brother Mr. Juddson,--"Alexander!"

"_Well_?" said Mr. Juddson. He was late as it was.

"You will make the office very cold if you leave the door--but never

mind. Don't let me keep you. I only wanted to tell you that I should

like to talk to you about something some time to-d--" The rest of the

sentence was lost upon Mr. Juddson, who had already shut the door behind

him, and Mrs. Tarbell felt aggrieved.

So much aggrieved, in fact, that she found it impossible to return to

the law-journal.

"I suppose I need a sedative," she said to herself. "If I were a man, I

would put my feet up on the table and light a cigar, or--no! I would

never practise that vilest form of the vice." (What she meant by this

last phrase I cannot imagine, unless she referred to something which Mr.

Juddson had been driven to do because he could not very well smoke while

his sister was in the office.) "What," continued Mrs. Tarbell, "what can

there be to recommend the position?" She looked at the desk.

"Is it an easy position?" she said. She looked down at her feet.

"Is it even a graceful position?" She swung herself to and fro on her

revolving-chair.

She looked about her. The office was empty; the office-boy had gone on a

very long errand. "I will try it," she said, with determination.

She removed all the books and papers on the right side of the table to

the left side. Then she tilted back her chair, elevated her left foot

cautiously, put it down, and elevated her right, placed it determinedly

on the table, crossed the other foot over it, leaned forward with some

difficulty to arrange her skirts, leaned back again.

"My book seems to lie very easily in my lap," she said to herself. "And

the leaves turn over quite willingly."

One page, two pages, three pages. "After all," said she,--"after all--if

one were quite alone--and had been sitting for a long time in another

attitude--"

Tap-tap! came a timid knock at the door.

"Come in!" cried Mrs. Tarbell, resuming her former position in a great

hurry, and dropping the law-journal.

Tap-tap!

"Come in!" said Mrs. Tarbell, picking up the law-journal. "_Come in_!"

she said.

And the door opened slowly.

"Well?" said Mrs. Tarbell.

"Is Mrs. Tarbell in?" said the party of the knocks.

"I am Mrs. Tarbell. Come in, please. What can I do for you?"

"I wanted to see you, ma'am."

"Take a chair. Well?"

"I suppose it's April weather," said the new-comer; "but the rain is

right chilly, so it is; like it was a November rain, somehow. Will I put

my umbreller right down here? The spring is dreadful late, and the

farmers is all complainin', they tell me."

Mrs. Tarbell shuddered.

The new-comer was tall and gaunt and thin; her shoulders sloped, she

stooped, her chin was up in the air, and she peered through spectacles.

Her hat was rusty, her india-rubber gossamer was rusty, the crape on her

dress was so very rusty that it seemed to be made of iron-filings. Her

cheeks were the color of unburned coffee-grains or of underdone

gingerbread; her nose was long; her eyes, were small and bleary; her

protruding lips wrinkled up as she spoke, and displayed her poor yellow

old tusks; her scant hair was dirty gray, her forehead was bald, her

neck was scraggy: she was particularly and pathetically ugly. Her dress

bagged about over her long waist and spidery arms. No wonder Mrs.

Tarbell shuddered.

"If I ain't disturbing you, Mrs. Tarbell," the visitor continued, "and

if you _could_ just spare the time to listen to me for a minnit, I

wanted just to ask you for a little advice. My name is Stiles,

ma'am,--Mrs. Annette Gorsley Stiles. Gorsley was my given name before I

was married--But I feel as if I was taking up your time, Mrs. Tarbell."

"Not at all," said Mrs. Tarbell hastily.

"Well, ma'am, my husband he's dead, been dead this six years now, and

left me with four to feed, and--well, I don't know just how to begin,

rightly. You see, it's this way. Celandine, my eldest,--that was _his_

name for her; he had a right pretty knack at names, and was always for

names that ran easy,--Celandine she's eighteen now, 'n' she wants to be

doing something for herself. It drives me real hard to pay for all four

of them out of a sewing-machine and the little I make selling candies

over a counter,--five cents' worth of chocolate drops and penny's-worths

of yellow taffy; never more than fifty cents a day, living where we do,

in Pulaski Street,--and Celandine she's bound to help me some way. The

next oldest to Celandine is on'y ten; and if I was to starve I wouldn't

have him to sell papers or black boots, and his father a foreman; and

the' ain't no call for office-boys nowadays, 'r else it's because

Augustus is so small for his age--"

"We have an office-boy," murmured Mrs. Tarbell.

"I know, ma'am," said Mrs. Stiles. "Leastways, I guessed as much. I was

thinking of asking you about Celandine." Mrs. Tarbell stirred uneasily,

and Mrs. Stiles hurried on: "Celandine and me we were talking things

over the other day,--we've been reading about you in the newspapers,

Mrs. Tarbell, nigh on to four years now; Celandine has always been a

comprehending child, precocious, as they say, and quick-witted, and

she's been watching your career, ma'am, just as clost as you could

yourself. And the day you was admitted she come home,--a friend of hers

gave her the afternoon paper,--and she says, 'Mother,' she says, 'Mrs.

Tarbell is admitted!'--just like it was a personal friend of yours, Mrs.

Tarbell; and reely, ma'am, I suppose I oughtn't to say it, but there's

been a good many women all over this country felt themselves personal

friends of yours, ma'am, knowing how much there was meant by your

success and feeling how near the question come to themselves; and if

good wishes brings good luck, that's what you have to thank for

succeeding. But Celandine she's an ambitious girl, Mrs, Tarbell, and the

long and the short of it is just this, that she's set her heart on being

a lawyer, and she's either too shy or too proud, mebbe, to come here

with me to speak to you, ma'am: so I just put on my bunnit the first day

I could, rain or shine, and rain it's turned out to be, to say a word to

you about her and just ask you what you _thought_."

"A lawyer?" gasped Mrs. Tarbell.

"Yes, ma'am; a lady lawyer."

Mrs. Tarbell had never a word to say. In spite of having triumphed over

all the arguments, both those epicene and those particularly masculine,

which had been used against herself, she had not now the strength of

mind to use them in her turn. In spite of being a lawyer, she had a

conscience. She had looked forward to taking students, but they were all

to have been Portias, every woman Jane of them; and before her own

learning was fairly dry (which I think an eminently proper adjective to

describe legal learning) there appeared to her an obviously

crack-brained old party in an india-rubber cloak, who kept a candy-store

and wanted her daughter to become a lawyer. No wonder Mrs. Tarbell was

embarrassed. Was she to say to the crack-brained one, "Madam, pay me one

hundred dollars per annum and I will take your daughter as a student"?

On the other hand, how in the name of that Orloff, that Pitt, that

Kohinoor diamond among precious virtues, consistency, was she to go so

far as even to hint to Mrs. Stiles that any woman couldn't be a lawyer?

As Mrs. Tarbell hesitated, she began to fear she was lost.

"Celandine is a real bright girl," said Mrs. Stiles, who had now

regained her breath. Was this the woman who had knocked so timidly at

the door? "Celandine is a _real_ bright girl; her mind is thorough,

logical, and comprehensive,--that's what Professor Jamieson said, up to

the High School. Them was his very words. Celandine is to graduate this

year: she's in the class with girls two and three years older than

herself, Mrs. Tarbell. It was a terrible strain on me to keep her at

school, ma'am, and again and _again_ I've thought I couldn't stand it,

what with her being in the shop only in the afternoon, and the washing,

and trying to keep her clothes always nice; though she's been as good as

_gold_,--making _all_ her dresses her_self_, and wearing a calico till

you'd have thought the stitches would have dropped right _out_ of it.

And she's ambitious, as I say. She don't seem to be able to face the

idea of going into a store; and, oh, dear me! they're terrible places,

those big stores, for girls. They're as bad as the factories; and

_often_ and _often_ when I see those poor creatures that stand behind

counters all day coming home at night and thinking so much about the way

their hair's done, and then consider what slaves they are, and what

they're exposed to, and how many wicked people are on the watch to work

them to death for no pay at all, and bully them, and to lead them all

wrong, if they can, why, it just makes me think how _sensible_ the good

Lord is, that he's able to take care of them so well and look after them

as much as he does. Professor Jamieson has been as kind as could _be_

about Celandine, and said he'd try to get a place for her as teacher;

but you can't do that, you know, Mrs. Tarbell, not onless you've got

friends in politics; and I haven't, not one. And a governess ain't often

asked for; and you need influence for that, too. And Celandine, though

she would take copying or typewriting, or be a telegraph operator, her

own idea is to be a lawyer. And I just thought, Mrs. Tarbell, that I'd

come to you and ask your advice; for I knew you'd sympathize."

"I--I don't know," gasped Mrs. Tarbell. The shock was almost as great as

if she had thought Mrs. Stiles was a client. And what was she to do?

Mrs. Stiles was not asking her to accept Miss Celandine as a student:

she was asking her whether Miss Celandine ought to study at all. Mrs.

Tarbell would have given anything to have a few platitudes at her

tongue's end, but her conscience rendered her helpless. "Well, you see,

Mrs. Stiles," she said at length, "we are trying a--hem--an experiment,

you know."

"An experiment!" cried Mrs. Stiles, astounded. "Law bless us, you're

admitted to be a lawyer, ain't you? And if one lady can be a lawyer--"

"Yes, yes," said Mrs. Tarbell hastily; "but that is not the question. I

mean that it is not yet certain that women are going to succeed at the

bar." Absolutely, though she was no fool, she had never made the

concession before,--not even to herself.

"But you are a lawyer," repeated Mrs. Stiles.

"It doesn't follow that I shall make money at the law," said Mrs.

Tarbell impatiently, but with a sense of her own justice.

Mrs. Stiles was staggered. "Not make any money?" she faltered.

"My good woman," said Mrs. Tarbell, "let me tell you that I have not yet

had a single client, that I have not yet made a single dollar!" And,

really, this was rather magnanimous. "The fact is, Mrs. Stiles," she

continued, "it is impossible to say how long it will be before women

inspire public confidence in their ability to do what has always been

supposed to be man's work."

"Law!" said Mrs. Stiles.

"And your daughter had better wait till that is settled in our favor

before she commits herself."

In Mrs. Stiles's cheeks a queer tinge appeared upon the gingerbread hue

before spoken of,--a faint reddish tinge, a sprinkling of powdered

cinnamon and sugar, as it were. "But, Mrs. Tarbell," she cried, "I

thought--why, I thought the courts arranged all that."

"You don't mean to tell me it was your belief that the members of the

bar are paid by the court?" said Mrs. Tarbell, aghast.

"Why, no, not exactly," stammered Mrs. Stiles. "But, then, I thought

they--sort of--distributed things, you know. Don't they? I heerd of a

young gentleman who was appointed to be lawyer for a man who cut his

wife's throat with a pair of scissors, and the gentleman had never seen

him before, not once."

"Did you suppose," said Mrs. Tarbell,--the affair was arranging itself

very easily, after all,--"did you suppose that the judges undertake to

see that the business of the courts is equally distributed among the

lawyers?"

"I--I don't know, ma'am, I'm sure."

"My good, woman," said Mrs, Tarbell, with great seriousness, "a lawyer

is just as much dependent upon custom as you are. There are many

confectioners who do a large business, there are some who fail. So it is

with lawyers. And many lawyers have to wait ten or twelve years before

they become known at all. So you see in what a critical situation your

daughter runs the risk of placing herself, and how seriously you ought

to reflect before you allow her to take such a risk."

She looked anxiously toward the door. At that moment it opened, and the

office-boy entered. She rose instantly, and Mrs. Stiles had to follow

her example. Mrs. Tarbell represented to herself that the rain would not

hurt her, and that Mrs. Stiles must be got rid of, and, feeling that

this could now be accomplished, smiled at Mrs. Stiles in a friendly and

reassuring manner.

"Who was the gentleman who was ten years before he got any work to do?"

said Mrs. Stiles, standing up very crooked and looking very bewildered.

"Oh," said Mrs. Tarbell glibly, "that has happened to a great many

lawyers. Let me see: I can't at this moment

recall--Chief-Justice--no--Lord--Lord--Eldon," she mumbled hastily,

"and Lord-Kilgobbin, and Chief-Justice Coleridge, all had to wait a--a

longer or a shorter time. In fact, it is very often a matter of chance

that a lawyer obtains any business at all." She walked past Mrs. Stiles,

and took up her umbrella. Mrs. Stiles followed her with an irresolute

glance. Mrs. Tarbell put on her ulster.

"Celandine will be dreadful disappointed," said Mrs. Stiles, in a

mournful tone. "And, dear me, Mrs. Tarbell, I never said a word to you

about what she's like; and me so proud of her, too."

In spite of her success, Mrs. Tarbell was by no means satisfied with

herself, and the pathetic note in Mrs. Stiles's voice proved too much

for her. "Mrs. Stiles," she said, turning round quickly, "perhaps I have

been putting one side of the matter too strongly before you. If you will

bring your daughter here some morning, we can discuss the subject

together for a little while, and I can advise her definitely as to what

course I think she had better pursue."

The expression of Mrs. Stiles's face changed a little; she seemed to be

surprised and gratified; but it was evident that the overthrow of her

delusions in regard to the remunerative character of the legal

profession had saddened and disturbed her. "It's right kind of you to

take so much trouble, Mrs. Tarbell," she said, buttoning up her

gossamer. "I feel as grateful to you as _can_ be; but I don't think I'll

tell Celandine all you've said, because--"

"Perhaps it would be wiser," said Mrs. Tarbell impatiently.

"And then, in a week or so--"

"Precisely; a week or so." Mrs. Tarbell found that _precisely_ was a

very short and lawyer-like word, so she repeated it.

"Well, then--" said Mrs. Stiles.

"Some time during the morning," said Mrs. Tarbell; and she turned to the

office-boy, with whom she began to converse in an undertone. Mrs. Stiles

came walking across the floor, slow and lugubrious. She bade Mrs.

Tarbell good-day. Mrs. Tarbell bowed her out as quickly as possible,

and then waited for a couple of minutes to give her time to get out of

the way.

But on going down-stairs Mrs. Tarbell found her standing in the

door-way, holding her umbrella half open and peering out into the rain,

Mrs. Stiles explained that she was waiting for a car.

"They run every two or three minutes," said Mrs. Tarbell sweetly.

"_Good_-day."

"Here's one now," said Mrs. Stiles. "Mrs. Tarbell, I just wanted to

say--mebbe you might think I wasn't appreciative of your kindness, and

that all I cared about was--"

"Not at all," said Mrs. Tarbell. "Not at all, I assure you. I

understand, perfectly. You will miss your--"

"That's so, that's so," said Mrs. Stiles. "Driver! driver!" And she ran

down the steps, flourishing her umbrella wildly.

Mrs. Tarbell put up her own umbrella, and looked down the street. The

rain splashed up from the pavement, the tree-boxes were wet and dismal,

the little rivers in the gutters raced along, shaking their tawny manes,

the umbrellas of the passing pedestrians were sleek and dripping, like

the coats of the seals in the Zoological Garden. Now that she was rid of

Mrs. Stiles, was it absolutely necessary for her to go out? She

hesitated a moment.

Suddenly she heard a cry from the street. Two or three men in front of

her stopped quickly, and then ran toward the prostrate figure of

somebody who had fallen from the car which had halted a few steps

farther on. The car-horses were plunging and swinging from one side of

the car to the other; the conductor had alighted and was hurrying back

toward the victim of the accident; the passengers were pushing out on

the back platform. Mrs. Stiles had slipped or been thrown down on the

muddy car-track. Mrs. Tarbell recognized her long black figure as it was

lifted up. A sad sight the poor woman was, her india-rubber cloak

spotted and streaked with mud and muddy water, her head hanging back

from her shoulders, her face the color of a miller's coat exactly,--a

dirty, grayish white,--and her arms shaking about with the motion of her

bearers. She had fainted; her bearers were looking about in the hope of

seeing an apothecary's shop, or some other such occasional hospital,

when Mrs. Tarbell accosted them.

Mrs. Tarbell stood in the established attitude of a woman in front of a

rainy-day gutter, holding her skirts with one hand and leaning forward

at such an angle that the drippings from the mid-rib of her umbrella

fell in equal streams upon the small of her back and a point precisely

thirteen inches from the tips of her galoshes.

"Bring her in here," cried Mrs, Tarbell, shaking her umbrella. "Bring

her in here." And she waved the umbrella in an elliptical curve about

her head.

"Where?" said the foremost of those addressed, an active-looking man

with a red moustache, a wet fur cap, and an umbrella under his arm.

"Here," said Mrs. Tarbell, thrusting her umbrella at the Land and Water

Company's building. To make her directions more accurate, she went to

the steps and nodded at the hall-way.

"The lady is my--has just been having a consultation with me," said Mrs.

Tarbell to the man in the red moustache, "and--"

"Which way?" said he.

"Right up-stairs: the first door at the head of the stairs, on the third

floor. I think you had better take her up in the elevator, because--"

"Cert'nly, cert'nly," he said, interrupting Mrs. Tarbell, who had

intended to be as brief and business-like as possible.

Mrs. Tarbell followed the procession into the elevator, and when they

arrived on the third floor, John, the office-boy, had already opened the

door, scenting an excitement afar off with curious nostril, as it were;

and Mrs. Stiles was duly carried in and laid on the sofa. "John, get

some water instantly," cried Mrs. Tarbell. And at the same moment a

red-cheeked young man bustled into the room and said that he was a

doctor.

He pushed everybody out of the way, darted to the sofa, took off his

hat. "Heard there was an accident, and if my services--unless there is

another practitioner--thank you, sir, you are doing the very best thing

possible; and now let us see whether there is a fracture," he said.

The promptitude and directness with which this young gentleman went to

work commanded the attention and admiration of all the spectators. He

asked for water, he called for salts of ammonia, he ran his hands

lightly over Mrs. Stiles's prostrate form, all in an instant; then he

asked how the accident had happened.

"She tried to get on while the car was going," growled the conductor,

who had accompanied the party up-stairs.

"I'll _bet_ she didn't," observed the party with the red moustache.

"Ankle, probably," murmured the doctor to himself. "Possibly a rib

also." And in a minute or two he was able to declare that the injury had

been done to the lady's ankle, the lady herself having assisted him to

this conclusion by coming to her senses, groaning, and putting her hand

down to the suffering joint.

The conductor frowned. "What is the lady's name and address, please,

ma'am?" he asked of Mrs. Tarbell. "I have to make a report of the

accident."

"_You_'ll find it out soon enough," said a thin man with a fresh

complexion, very silvery hair, and spectacles. "The company will not

have to wait long for the information." He looked about with a cheerful

smile, and the conductor glared at him contemptuously. "_She_ never

tried to get on while you were going," continued the thin man. "It was

your driver; that's what it was."

"The lady's name is Stiles, conductor," said Mrs. Tarbell,--"Stiles; and

she lives--dear me!--on Pulaski Street. Can I do anything for you,

doctor?"

"You might send your boy for a carriage," said the doctor, who was

engaged in removing Mrs. Stiles's shoe. "Nothing else, thank you, unless

you happen to have some lead-water about you." He gave a professional

smile, and Mrs. Stiles groaned dismally.

Mrs. Tarbell despatched John for the carriage, and then, turning, and

blushing in a way that was rather out of keeping with her tone of voice,

she said, "Now, I should be obliged if you gentlemen who saw the

accident would furnish me with your names and addresses."

On hearing this the crowd began to diminish rapidly; but the man with

the red moustache set a good example by giving his name loudly and

promptly as "Oscar B. Mecutchen, tobacconist, d'reckly opposite the City

Hall." So three or four other men allowed Mrs. Tarbell to set them down

as observers of the disaster. The gentleman in spectacles was named

Stethson, another man, a tall, fat-cheeked countryman, Vickers, and a

dried up little party, in a Grand-Army-of-the-Republic suit,

Parthenheimer. Mrs. Tarbell had the names down pat, and scrutinized each

prospective witness carefully, as if warning him that it would be no use

for him to give a fictitious name in the hope of evading his duties, as

she would now be able to pick him out of a regiment.

"I am very much obliged to you," she said, in a stately manner. "Now,

you all agree that the accident was the result of the negligence of the

driver of the car?"

"Why, yes, certainly," they all agreed at once.

"Leastways--" said Mecutchen.

"That is--" said Parthenheimer.

"How was it, anyway?" asked Stethson.

"Thought you saw it," cried the others, turning on him instantly.

"So I did," said Stethson; "but I thought I'd like to hear what you

gentlemen's impression was."

"Well," said Mecutchen and Vickers, the tall man, together, tipping back

their hats with a simultaneous and precisely similar movement on the

part of each,--nothing is more indicative of the careful independence of

the average American than the way in which he always keeps his head

covered in the presence of his lawyer,--"Well," said Vickers and

Mecutchen.

Mr. Mecutchen bowed to Mr. Vickers, and Mr. Vickers bowed to Mr.

Mecutchen, with a sort of grotesque self-effacement. Mr. Vickers waved

his hand, and Mr. Mecutchen proceeded.

"Why," said he, "the lady stopped the car in the middle of the

block,--just like a woman,--got on the platform, car started with a

jerk, and she fell off."

Vickers and Parthenheimer nodded assent, but Stethson said that _his_

view of it was that the car started off again while she was trying to

get on.

"That makes it stronger," said Mecutchen.

"Well, of course," said Stethson, settling his spectacles farther back

on his nose; and Vickers murmured that you couldn't have it too strong,

as he knew from the point of view (as he said) of cows. "It's wonderful

what you can get for cows," he added pensively.

"Ag'in' a railroad company," said the grizzled old Parthenheimer, "the

stronger the better, because some cases, no matter how aggerawated they

are, you only git a specific sum and no damages. But a railroad case,

which is a damage case right through, the worse they are the more you

git. I had a little niece to be killed by a freight-train, and they took

off that pore little girl's head, and her right arm, and her left leg,

all three, like it was done by a mowing-machine,--so clean cut, you

know. Well, sir, they got a werdick for six thousand dollars, my brother

and his wife did; and their lawyer stood to it that the mangling brought

in three thousand; and I think he was right about it, too."

"Six thousand!" said Vickers, with immense appreciation.

"The court set it aside for being excessive," said Parthenheimer," and

aft'werds they compromised for less. But there it was. And the way it

was done was odd, too. Right arm and left leg."

"Ah," said Vickers, "living right on a railroad, the way I do, you see

some queerer accidents than that. Now, I remember--"

But Mrs. Tarbell found this conversation growing quite too ghastly to be

listened to with composure, so she turned abruptly toward the sofa. The

doctor was now bathing and examining Mrs. Stiles's ankle, and Mrs.

Stiles looked not merely the picture but the dramatic materialization of

misery.

"How do you feel now, Mrs. Stiles? How do you think she is, doctor?"

These two questions were put in Mrs. Tarbell's sweetest tones.

Mrs. Stiles lay for a moment without answering, but the doctor replied

that he was afraid it was a nasty business. "There is a dislocation, and

there may be nothing more, except a sprain," he said. "But it will be

impossible to tell until the swelling is reduced; and if there is a

fracture of the fibula, why, such a complication is apt to be serious."

Mrs. Stiles groaned feebly, and then looked up at Mrs. Tarbell with

gratitude. "I never thought to be so much trouble to you," she murmured.

"Do not think of that for a moment," said Mrs. Tarbell. "If I only had

my cologne-bottle," she said, half aloud, in an apologetic voice. This

was one of the luxuries she had refused herself in her professional

toilet; more than this, she did not allow herself to carry a

smelling-bottle, though Mr. Juddson had told her it could be used with

great effect to disconcert an opposing counsel.

"I am afraid you are suffering very much," she went on.

"Yes, ma'am," said Mrs. Stiles sadly. "If I hadn't only been such a fool

as to try to get on that there car while it was a-going."

Mrs. Tarbell started. The doctor rose and laughed.

"You don't mean that," said he.

"Mean what, doctor?"

"That you tried to get on while the car was going. All these gentlemen

here say the car started while you were trying to get on, which is a

very different thing, you know." The doctor had evidently kept his ears

open while attending to the sufferer. Mrs. Tarbell, rather red in the

face, kept silent, not knowing exactly what she ought to do.

"I don't know," said Mrs. Stiles feebly. "I don't s'pose I remember

much."

"Of course you don't," said the doctor cheerfully. "Bless you, you'll

sue the company and have a famous verdict; I wouldn't take ten thousand

dollars for your chances if I had them. You observe," he went on

confidentially to Mrs. Tarbell, "I am doing my best for the community of

interests which, ought to exist among the learned professions. I raise

this poor woman's spirits by suggesting to her dreams of enormous

damages, and at the same time I promote litigation, to the great

advantage of her lawyer. I think that is the true scientific spirit."

"I--I--" began Mrs. Tarbell, in some confusion.

"Beg pardon?" said the doctor. "Well, I must be off. I've done all I can

for the poor woman. She ought to send for her own doctor as soon as she

gets home. I suppose--will you--?" He looked at Mrs. Tarbell doubtfully,

as if wondering whether he ought to take it for granted that she was in

charge of the case.

"I will tell her," said Mrs. Tarbell.

"I could tell her myself," said the doctor. "To be sure. Well, if I

could only inform her lawyer what I've done for him, he might induce my

fair patient to employ me permanently." He smiled at his joke, shook his

head waggishly, and turned to look for his hat.

As Mrs. Tarbell looked after him in some perplexity, John, the

office-boy, came back to report that the carriage was engaged and at the

door; and Mrs. Stiles was presently carried down-stairs again, it being

quite impossible for her even to limp.

But before she was lifted up she turned her head and beckoned to Mrs.

Tarbell.

"Could I," she said,--"could I have a case against the railway company?"

"Ye-es,--I suppose so," Mrs. Tarbell answered.

"Did they say it was the fault of the conductor that I fell off that

car?"

"Of the driver,--yes."

"Well, then, ma'am, would you advise me to bring a case against them?"

"You had better decide for yourself," said Mrs. Tarbell faintly. But

then, remembering that it was her duty to advise, she added, "Yes, I

think you ought to sue."

"Then you'll take the case, Mrs. Tarbell, won't you, please?" said Mrs.

Stiles, closing her eyes again, as if satisfied of the future.

Mrs. Tarbell! There was a general movement of surprise as the lady

lawyer's name was pronounced, and the doctor was so much taken aback

that heh burst out laughing.

"I'm sure I beg your pardon, Mrs. Tarbell," he cried. "I had no idea in

the world--"

"Ah," said Stethson, "I looked at the sign on the door coming in. I knew

it was the lady lawyer. My, if my wife could see you, Mrs. Tarbell!"

"And I never knew who I was talking to!" grumbled Mecutchen disgustedly.

A quarter of an hour later, when Mr. Juddson returned to his office,

Mrs. Tarbell was engaged in drawing up a paper which ran as follows:

ANNETTE GORSLEY STILES } _Court of Common_

vs. } _Pleas._

THE BLANK AND DASH } _May Term, 1883._

AVENUES PASSENGER } _No_. ----

RAILWAY CO. }

_To the Prothonotary of the said Court_:

Issue summons in case returnable the first

Monday in May, 1883.

TARBELL,

pro plff.

It was a _precipe_ for a writ.

"Alexander!" said Mrs. Tarbell, in an expressive voice, regardless of

the office-boy.

"Yes?" said Mr. Juddson. The referee had refused to admit some of his

testimony.

"Alexander, I have a client," said Mrs. Tarbell.

"Do you tell me so?" replied Mr. Juddson absently, as he redisarranged

the papers upon his table. "I hope--Bless me, where _is_ that--? Mrs.

Tarbell, have you seen anything of an envelope?--John, what became of

the papers in Muggins and Bylow? I gave them to you."

Mrs. Tarbell, deeply mortified, resumed her occupation, and completed

the _precipe_ by writing the words, "Tarbell, pro plff."

Mr. Juddson's papers were found for him, under his nose, and he was

beginning to say that he was going out to lunch, when the enormity of

his conduct made itself apparent to him.

"By George!" he said, stopping short, "you told me you had a client at

last, eh, Mrs. Tarbell?"

"Yes," said Mrs. Tarbell coldly.

"Why,--bless my soul! It's your first client, is it not? And what kind

of a case has your ewe-lamb brought you? Come, tell me about it. I did

not properly appreciate the communication." And he went over to Mrs.

Tarbell's desk, upon which he sat himself down in a position which Mrs.

Tarbell had formerly considered very undignified; but now she could not

help feeling that it was really a legal attitude.

She looked up with a smile, and then, though with a little shame,

displayed the _precipe_.

"Well, that's good," said Mr. Juddson. "Accident case, I suppose. What

is it? Death, and damages for the widow?--for I see there are no

children,--or was the plaintiff herself the victim of the accident? Your

sex has finally decided to stand by you, it seems."

"I shan't send out the writ just yet," said Mrs. Tarbell, blushing. "I

was--wanted to see how the _precipe_ would look. I must see the

plaintiff again, I think, before I advise her definitely to sue."

"Hasn't she a case?"

"Yes--but--"

"What nonsense!" cried Juddson. "Come, my dear, don't be a goose, and

don't lose a return-day. Otherwise, I shall buy you a sewing-machine."

"Aren't you pleased, Alexander?" said Mrs. Tarbell, with a little

effusion.

"My dear, I'm delighted. I hope that in five years' time you will be

supporting me and my family. Your sister-in-law will be speechless with

jealousy. I congratulate you. Hum--The Blank and Dash Avenues Company?

Well, you won't have to send John very far with your copies of the

pleadings. Pope was appointed attorney for the company last week, in

place of old Slyther, who resigned, you know."

"Pope?" said Mrs. Tarbell.

"Yes,--the Honorable Franklin."

"Goodness!" said Mrs. Tarbell, in a tone of inexpressible disgust.

"By jingo; you are not fond of him, are you? Hem! Well, as a general

rule, I should advise you to put personal feelings entirely out of the

question; but, as this is your first case, perhaps it would be just as

well for you to have me with you, and let me--hum--well, let me take the

jury."

"Alexander! do you think I am _afraid_ of Mr. Pope?"

"N-no; but Pope is a blackguard, and very shady, and, it might be

unpleasant for you; and I'd do that, if I were you."

Mrs. Tarbell's spirits rose. "I will do nothing of the sort, Alexander,"

she said; "though it is very kind of you to suggest it; and I will--I

will bet you,"--determinedly,--" I will bet you a copy of the new

edition of Baxter's Digest that I beat him."