"And so you are a lawyer, Edward? Well, who would have thought of
it? It must be a very easy thing to be made a lawyer."
Julia looked at me with eyes that reddened with vexation. I felt
my gorge rising; but when I reflected upon the ignorance, and
the unworthy nature of the speaker, I overcame the disposition to
retort, and smilingly replied:-"It's not such hard work as bricklaying, certainly."
"Ah," she answered, "if it were only half so profitable. But Mr.
Clifford says that a lawyer now is only another name for a beggar--a
sort of genteel beggar. The town's overrun with them--half of them
live upon their friends."
"I trust I shall not add to the number of this class, Mrs. Clifford."
"Oh, no! I know YOU never will, Cousin Edward," exclaimed Julia,
with a flush upon her cheeks at her own temerity.
"Really, Julia," said her mother, "you are very confident. How do
you know anything about it?"
The sharp glances of rebuke which accompanied this speech daunted
the damsel for a moment, and her eyes were suddenly cast in confusion
upon the ground; but she raised them with boldness a moment after,
as she replied:-"We have every assurance, mother, for what I say, in the fact that
Cousin Edward has been supporting himself at another business, while
actually pursuing the study of law for these three years; and that
very pride about which father spoke today, is another assurance--"
"Bless my stars, child, you have grown very pert on a sudden, to
talk about guaranties and assurances, just as if you was a lawyer
yourself. The next thing we hear, I suppose, will be that instead
of being busy over the 'Seven Champions' and the last fashions,
you, too, will he turning over the leaves of big law-books, and
carrying on such studies in secret to surprise a body, as if there
was any merit or good in doing such things secretly."
Julia felt that she had only made bad worse, and she hung her head
in silence. For my part, though I suppressed my choler, the pang was
only the more keenly felt for the effort to hide it. In my secret
soul, I asked, "Will the day never come when I, too, will be able
to strike and sting?" I blushed an instant after, at the small and
mean appetite for revenge that such an inquiry implied. But I came
to the support of Julia.
"Let me say, Mrs. Clifford, that I think--nay, I know--that Julia
is right in her conjecture. The guaranty which I have given to my
friends, by the pride and industry which I have shown, should be
sufficient to convince them what my conduct shall be hereafter.
I know that I shall never trespass upon their feelings or their
pockets. They shall neither blush for nor lose by their relationship
with Edward Clifford."