SHORT STORY

Alexandra Herald and Central Otago Gazette, Issue 359, 26 March 1903, Page 7

SHORT STORY

* He U not the man that Margaret ought to marry * * Why not ? He seems to be coming to the front, accumulating property, has a fine home ready for his bride—a successful lawyer, I believe.* ' The kind of success that a true woman will not be satisfied with. I know MarSret. She is not like other girls. She s been her father’s companion, and ho« his ideas of right and justice. The fine house you speak of—do you know how M v:k got it P It belonged to a widow; he bad a mortgage on it. He took advantage of the fact of the interest not being paid promptly, it was put up at auction, the weather was hot, people out of town, no bidders, and he bought it for a song. The purchase is now being contested.* * Well, it’s all in the line of business, I suppose.’ •Yes, it’s business, minus a sense of right.’ ‘Say, old fellow, are these Utopian ideas of yours common in the legal profession.’ ‘ They’re not quite so common as God’s air and sunshine, but they have attended all true success in the profession of the law.’ ‘1 ait at your feet, my dear sir lam leaning wisdom. What's the fee P’ - * Oh, thank-you ; don’t mention it. The relation between client and lawyer is a trust relation, and this trust is violated leas frequently than any other business relation. 3 * Ton don’t mean it! Say, old fellow, don’t fling sentiments like that around loose; they’ll knock people senseless.’ *We only hear of the failures, you know. They come to the light, and the profession stands the brunt’ * Where are your Websters, your Calhouns, your Storys to-day P* * While it is true that their days have gone by, we have as many able and eminent lawyers in New York or Chicago, or any of our large cities, as there were in the whole United States.’ ‘I am astonished; bat times have changed.’ ‘ Yee, but the law of right and justice has not changed. That remains. Success and fame in the legal profession have followed along the line—the line of commercial, or professional righteousness. Call up any of the names of our renowned jurists, follow their course—you will find that they have won by defending the rights of their fellow-men, not by defrauding them, not by tricks. Why, a man's a fool who forfeits the respect and confidence of his fellows, his career is necessarily a short one.’ *1 am glad to learn that there are some of the good kind .left in the profession.* * Yes, but unfortunately there are toe many men in it, who ought to be doing something else, hewers of wood or drawers of water. Many would do less harm in the world as groundlings. A smattering of legal knowledge makes them cunning, tricin', dangerous to their fellow men, and damaging to the profession; these are the ones that get rich off the widow and the orphan.* * What do yon think of a university oi morality, attached to a law school. Train fellows in the higher law; when one shows a tendency to tricks, to dishonesty, turn him down; don’t aim him with, legal tools with which to cheat his fellows. But then, by Jove! yen would not confine this college of morality to the law alone. That reminds me, I was riding in a street car in New York city, some time ago. A countryman sat beside me who • was interested in the little machine that registered the fares. Turning to an intelligent-looking woman, he inquired what it was for. After she had explained it he said, ‘ Why, how foolish to go to all that trouble; why don't they have honest conductors?* ‘Honest conductors?’ said the old lady. ‘Why there’s not honesty enough in the city to make a mayor.’ Thus in their bachelor apartments the two young men talked and smoked, cue ot them with high ideas of right, the other somewhat pessimistic in his views. The friend of whom they spoke took his bride to the home he had bought, and the young people entered upon their new life with fair-prospects. ’ Margaret was a girl who had adorned her home as well as society. Her surroundings had come to have a harmonious relation to the family, which consisted only of herself and tether, whose views and thoughts she shared thoroughly. Now, in arranging her new home she waslappy to carry out her ideas of the house beautiful, to make it attractive for her 1 usband, to offer a sincere, not a showy, hospitality to her friends. But the happiness of the young wife, with its pleasant home duties, was ol short duration. One day a stranger called, a lady of middle age, in mourning drees The ycung matron received her graciously as was her wont. Looking around tht drawing-room the lady remarked. ‘Yot have made the home very pretty, mj dear. 1 did not know it had such possibilities.’ ‘ You know it, then P’ said Margaret. ‘Yes, it was my home,* the lady replied * Oh, then you are the one from when my husband bought it. How could yot sell such a pleasant home ? It must have - been a great sacrifice te give it up,* ex claimed the young housekeeper, •It was, my dear.’ Then, after t moment, in which she seemed to be con suiting with herself, she rose to go, saying *ltis a world of changes, you know, hope you may be happy here.* Margaret thanked her, but felt tha the object of her visit had not been ox plained. ‘ How could I tell ler ?’ mused the lady as she went her way. ‘Hov could have thought of such a thing as going t a»k hex intercession with her husband i: behalf of justice to me P I could no destroy her faith in him. She is the kin of woman to take it to heart. Let it g< I will not spoil her Tfe.’ Not long after this the young husban came home in unusually gay spirits, A -u dinner he said: ‘Well, Margaret, m pearl, I am rid of a troublesome tui This house now belongs to me.’ ‘ What do yon mean, my dear ?’ sake the wile, ‘ Did you not buy it some tin ego!*

r w COMMeRCIAL - - ■ HIGH TEOUStf ESS

- Tea, he replied ; * but the widow, the party who owned it contested the purchase.’ * Oh. w &s she not satisfied ?’ asked Margaret. ‘ Well, you see, I got it very cheap—a nominal price,* said the husband, growing confidential ‘ It was sold in a dull ; season f people were out of town; I had it all my own way. To my surprise, the i widow—ah, the party—has suddenly with- , drawn the suit; it is now mine. Why, nay girl, what is the matter ? You don’t seem to enter into this. One might think i a calamity had happened.’ * Oh! it is a calamity 5 it is, it is. How 1 can we live in a home that was taken 1 from a widow under such circumstances ? 1 How em we call it ours f’ ‘ Why, my dear, you look at it too seriously It’s all in the line of business. Yon see, if I had not bought it somebody else would. Business is business.’ 1 'Business!* exclaimed the young wife. ‘ But what of right and justice ? I once heard my father giro a talk to some students on commercial righteousness. I believjd, as he did, that there was such a thing.’ ‘ Commercial fiddlesticks!’ said the husband hastily. ‘ But pardon me, Margaret, I am looking out for our best interests. You do not understand business, I am bound to get ahead. Your father has some old-fashioned ideas, as you know.’ 1 ‘ My father ?’ Suddenly the wife rises and confronts her husband. The amiable Margaret is a blaze of indiitnation. 'My father,’ she said, ‘is an eminent lawyer 1 and Christian gentleman. His life has ■ prored that the two are not incompatible. Ob, is it possible yon cannot realise, can--1 not understand such a combination P He has one success from these old-fashioned , ideas of justice. He would have scorned [ to take it in any other way.’ Saying this, she left the room. 1 1 By George, she has thrown the gauntlet 1 in my face—a girl of spirit, a revelation! Yon never can tell what a woman is going > to do. How she blazed! How handsome she looked! But she’ll come ’round. > She’ll take the riches. All women are I alike.* , The atmosphere of the home had i changed; the sunshine had gone out of it; dark shadows lay between the two; ) life went on with a cold formality. As the weeks and months wore away, they ) had less and less in common. Like the i lovers in Jean Bigelow’s poem, * Divided/ i one had crossed the narrow beck, a tiny - ribbon of water; they let go of hands, . the stream widened; now they could not L even call across to each other. 1 So the two lived apart in the melan--3 choly home in which they had thought to - be so happy. t * • • * * I Our two bachelors are again in their 3 apartment, discussing the problem of life. ' What’s the matter with Mack P a Things don’t seem to be going all right - with him, and Margaret is changed. He seems to be making money, hut losing 0 caste, though I don’t suppose there is ? really anything that can be brought s against him. But something’s wrong bea tween him and Margaret.’ g * He has lowered his ideals, and she has U not’ U 'ldeals! Will you tell me what kind of 0 stock they consist of, and if our friend 1 had much of it on the etart.’ ' Perhaps he had not, but it is the most I valuable property a man can start in life a with.’ e ‘You astound me. Where is it situated P’ I * Overhead, a light that shines afar.’ i. ' A kind of headlight, I suppose.’ e ‘Yts, and when the light is obscured l we grope in the dark and lose our way,’ t ' My friend, yon speak in metaphor.’ >. ‘But 1 speak truth. History sustains s the fact. Let a nation lower her standard t of freedom and justice, grasping for u power and dominion, and her downfall is I assured. With nations and with ini dividuals, the same law is true. I hold I an ideal to be the soul’s highest standard t of good and noble achievement.’ i ‘ Yes, it’s something you’re always j living up to and never get, and if you get it then yon lose it.* e ' Lose it as an ideal, of course; gain it £ as a reality.’ * Men establish a new station for ideals further on, I suppose. Do you think our friend Mack realizes what a loss he has sustained in this kind of property ?’ 9 'He is losing the respect of men, and, if Ism not mistaken, his domestic happiness * is at stake. What remains worth living ■- for ?’ 8 a * * * • # i Margaret’s father, who had always been s her confidant and companion, from whom she had never before withheld any im--0 portant thing, knowing his high-minded e girl so thoroughly and the trend of the r business career of her husband, could not a long be kept in ignorance of the unhappy state of affairs betwen the young people. •f Reluctant as he was to interfere, yet 1 his daughter’s happiness was to him the 3. dearest object in life. He resolved to ft have an interview with her husband. 0 ' Yon see, sir, I made a mistake,’ said n the young man, ‘ telling Margaret about y my business affairs. Women don’t nnder- -- stand these things.' ‘You made a mistake in doing the thing, not in telling your wife about it,’ L said the elder man kindly. ‘Women n have a keener moral pereeption than men. You would do well to submit the moral 0 side of a transaction to her.’ ‘ Oh, my dear sir, where would I come out?* a ‘A successful and honoured man. Aside 1. Horn this, I think a woman ought to know something about her husband’s business 1 affairs. Then if she is left without his protection, she is not at the mercy of any it who may be tempted to take advantage of s. her.’ * 1 not know you had such advanced y, ideas in regard to women,’ said the young 1 man. ‘ I knew you had some views about to justice, which are somewhat ' in ‘ Old-fashioned, were you going to say, ot or advanced also P’ id * No, sir. I think they are hard to jo. follow.’ ‘ Not at all—just the opposite. My id boy, none of us is strong enough to trifle it with justice She will have her reckoning oy with every transgressor. Now, my boy, I it. am going to take a father’s privilege of telling you that I think your sense of ea right has been obscured for a time by ae youi haste to get ahead in the world, bab ska a fresh start—you’ll be astonished to

find how much easier it is to get on when all the right-going powers your side, and men learn to trust you. Take a f reah start. This doesn't count.' ' My dear sir, it has counted most seriously ; it has made ua wretched. Tell me what to do!' 'Make restitution to the widow from whom yon bought the property. Get a fair valuation on it and pay her the difference. We'll fix it up, and I think things will look brighter soon.' It was fixed up and the sunshine carae back, and Margaret was her old bappy self once more, and there was no more welcome visitor to the home than the former owner, of whom the young wife grew very fond. Many a coay evening was spent by the family party, which usually included Margaret's father, who seemed to take a growiHg interest in their home life. One evening as the elder lawyer accompanied the widow home after a pleasant visit, she said to him:

*lt was you who shoved us bow light must triumph.' 'lt is estimated by the poet, Oliver Wendell Holmes, that out of a hundred people, fifty one are to be found on the side of right, bo the world is saved.' ' Saved by a majority of one," replied his companion. ' Teß,' said the lawyer, * a majority of one, but yst saved, thank God.' •Do you know, I feel so indebted to your counsel in the settlement of our affair, I have often wanted to ask you what I ought to do about it.' ' There is one thing, my dear madam, that you can do. I will quote it as the reply of an eminent jurist to question from a female client.' 'What iB it I can do?' she asked eagerly. ' Yuu can marry yonr counsel.' When Margaret heard the news, she was delighted. * Father will be so happy,' she said, 'and i*\ is so romantic'

* Yes,' replied her husband, ' it ia the romance of the middle ages.'— Lizzib Yohk Case.