and driven me to drink!" 

 Dunham smiled. "And yet those are scarcely facts with which you can reassure her," he remarked. 

 Judge Trent caught the younger man's eye with a sympathetic twinkle. 

 "Precisely; and the sad consequence is that she has never been entirely reassured. Her name's against her, poor girl—Martha. Careful about many things." 

 "Then you had no successor?" 

 "No, and affairs piled up. I had too much to attend to to renew the attack. I didn't have time to smooth down her ruffled feathers, so—the result is that we've each flocked alone. Just as well, just as well," continued the speaker, musingly. "What I was thinking of just now was how many different lives we seem to live in one; how our tastes change; and at best how few illusions are left to lawyers regarding marriage." 

 "In other words, you're a confirmed old bachelor. What was it you asked me a minute ago—if I were in love?" 

 "Yes, or if you had been." 

 "Have been dozens of times,—am not," returned Dunham, with the smile that his employer liked. 

 "Just so, just so," the latter answered quickly. "We change. Read First Corinthians, seventh chapter, and if you take Paul's advice and don't pass the Rubicon, then you 'll be free to change as often as you please." 

 Dunham looked up again. "Are you a Bible student, Judge Trent?" 

 "Student of everything," returned the lawyer, with a short wave of his thin hand. 

 "All books except woman's looks, eh?" answered Dunham, returning to his papers. 

 "I said I had no successors," remarked the judge, regarding his gaiters musingly. "I'm not at all sure of that. Miss—Martha was a very attractive woman. My impression is that in any case she preferred to concentrate all her faculties upon watching to see that I didn't get into mischief." 

 "That's faithfulness, I'm sure," returned Dunham. "The necessity for building those kitchen fires wouldn't exist now," he added suggestively. 

 "Young man, no levity," returned the judge. 

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