University of Michigan Law School - Quad Yearbook (Ann Arbor, MI)

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l l E 3 i 5 F 5 I R 4 E I i u vi 2 -1 5 v

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Iwo Broken Zbapters BY MAUDE ELAINE CALDVVELL Che 'First 0llQ a T T W'AS nine o'clock. The hardware-store man's son, a gentle-faced, boyish youth, sat in a big chair bythe stove, playing with his watch, and yawning. The lamps in the front of the store had been put out and the small one standing on the counter near the stove made but a little circle of dusty light, outside of which, inthe big shadows, there were eerie gleams from the tin and copper on the shelves a Q and from the bright nickle things on the stoves. Back in the bookkeeper's cage was a low lamp with a greenishade, and beside it leaned the bald head of a man. There were but few sounds at that hour, -it was in a small mid-Michigan town,-only anqoccasional echoing tread outside and the beat of the April rain, and, inside, the pen of the book- keeper, and the snapping ofQFred's watch-lid. Nine o'clock, Goliath, announced the idle one, ffpretty near done ? ' ' , There was the click of a pen laid down, the thud of a closing book, a stool squeaked in turning, the little green light went out and quick, even footsteps approached the stove. lf was just through as you spoke, sir . The voice was crisp, and the sir was in the tone of one given to oratory. There was a curious Websterian air, too, about the thin little crooked figure with its large well-carried head. Fred had risen and brought his coat and hat from their peg, buthpaused in the act of putting them on, apparently struck by something unusual in the bookkeeper's air,-a certain restlessness,

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I am born sir, of L1 long line of Virginia lawyers, and we are LI race proud of our ancestors and their calling. I was trained to follow them. Sir, I cannot tell you at what cost that training was I The war left us impoverished, and I was sixteen when it was over, ready in years for college. There was no money, But, sir, Ihave 11 mother. She is an indomitable woman! YVC worked early and we worked late, she with pen, with governess-books, with needle, and I-wherever a gentleman's son could go, sir. It was very cheerless, but we were brave, we never faltered. You see Iwas the last of the race, sir, my father and only brother were killed at the first Bull Run. , ' HI was thirty-five when I was admitted to the bar. It had taken a long time, but that day was worth it. Sir, my mother was beautiful that day! H Hill the long trouble is over', I said to her, 'I can take care of you now I 1 I f'lVe settled in Richmond where we had used to live. My father's name brought me some clients. But I was too late in the field. And Richmond living could not be made cheap with so many near who knew the family. H Wfe went,--but sir 'I cannot tell you of our wanderings,-of the dismal offices we moved hopefully into and patiently out of. My mother, sir, is an indomitable woman l By and by we came here. Some one said,-Qsome one-who should have been a worthy authority-that these small northern communities are exceedingly litigious. They may be, sir, they maybe, but '7-there wasla shade of grimness aboutthe close-knit mouth,-4' none of their litigation has fallen under my charge. 'fMy mother could not endure the northern climate. life came in late October, November nearly killed her, and in Decem- ber I sent her back to friends in Norfolk, where I have since supi ported her. There you have the outline, sir, of my past. But the kernel of it all, the key to my present trouble lies in this,-my mother has never known that .I have abandoned the law. She supposes me practicing and with some measure of success, at last. I believe it actually would kill her if she knew to what end all those yea1'S of privation were endured, if she knew to what level the family pride has sunk , !