"Now, Case, this is a serious matter. A young and utterly unknown man,
without money, friends, acquaintances or books, and doubtful whether
he has brains, learning and capacity, in some small or large town,
attacks the world, throws down his gage--or rather nails it up, in the
shape of a tin card, four by twelve inches, with his perfectly obscure
name on it. Think of it! Just suppose you have a little back room, up
stairs, with a table, two chairs, half a quire of paper, an inkstand,
two steel pens, Swan's Treatise, and the twenty-ninth volume of Ohio
Statutes. You would be very busy arranging all this array of things,
and would whistle cheerfully till that was accomplished, and then you
would grow sad, and sit down to wait and think--"
"Of the rich Judge's beautiful daughter," broke in Case.
"And wait," continued Bart.
"Oh, Bart! I glory in your pluck and spunk," said Case, "and I think
of your performance as Major Noah said of Adam and Eve: 'As touching
that first kiss,' said he, 'I have often thought I would like to have
been the man who did it; but the chance was Adam's.'"
"Ridgeley seems to be taken in hand by Miss Giddings," said Kennedy;
"that would not be a bad opening for an ambitious man."
"Of the ripe years of twenty-three," put in Case. "The average age
would be about right. She has led out one or two of each crop of law
students since she was sixteen."
"What has been the trouble?" asked Kennedy.
"I don't know.
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