Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 01.pdf/585

 534

Look at him; he has got that eye of his fixed on a counsellor's wig, you may depend; and sweeping a country attorney's office is not the stepping-stone to that." He added warily, " At least there is no precedent re ported." "La, sir," said the widow, " he only wants to turn an honest penny, and be among lawpapers." "Ay, ay, to write 'em and sell 'em, but not to dust 'em!" "For that matter, sir, I believe he 'd rather be the dust itself in your office than bide at home with me." Here she turned angry with her offspring for half a moment. "And so I would," said young master, stoutly indorsing his mother's hyperbole very boldly, though his own mind was not of that kind which originates metaphors, similes, and engines of inaccuracy in general. "Then I say no more," observed Mr. Chitty; " only mind, it is half a crown a week, — that is all." The terms were accepted, and Master Robert entered on his humble duties. He was steady, persevering, and pushing; in less than two years he got promoted to be a copying clerk. From this, in due course, he became a superior clerk. He studied, pushed, and persevered, till at last he be came a fair practical lawyer, and Mr. Chitty's head clerk. And so much for perseverance. He remained some years in this position, trusted by his employer, and respected, too; for besides his special gifts as a law-clerk, he was strict in morals, and religious without parade. In those days country attorneys could not fly to the metropolis and back to dinner. They relied much on London attorneys, their agents. Lawyer Chitty's agent was Mr. Bishop, a judge's clerk; but in those days a judge's clerk had an insufficient stipend, and was allowed to eke it out by private prac tice. Mr. Bishop was agent to several coun try attorneys. Well, Chitty had a heavy case coming on at the assizes, and asked

Bishop to come down for once in a way and help him in person. Bishop did so, and in working the case was delighted with Chitty's managing clerk. Before leaving he said he sadly wanted a managing clerk he could rely on. Would Mr. Chitty oblige him, and part with this young man? Chitty made rather a wry face, and said that young man was a pearl. " I don't know what I shall do without him; why, he is my alter ego." However, he ended by saying, generously, that he would not stand in the young man's way. Then they had the clerk in, and put the question to him. "Sir," he said, "it is the ambition of my heart to go to London." Twenty-four hours after that, our humble hero was installed in Mr. Bishop's office, directing a large business in town and coun try. He filled that situation for many years, and got to be well known in the legal pro fession. A brother of mine, who for years was one of a firm of solicitors in Lincoln's Inn Fields, remembers him well at this pe riod, and to have met him sometimes in his own chambers, and sometimes in Judge's Chambers; my brother says he could not help noticing him, for he bristled with intel ligence, and knew a deal of law, though he looked a boy. The best of the joke is that this clerk afterward turned out to be four years older than that solicitor who took him for a boy. He was now up amongst books as well as lawyers, and studied closely the principles of law whilst the practice was sharpening him. He was much in the courts, and every case there cited in argument or judgment he hunted out in the books, and digested it, together with its application in practice by the living judge, who had quoted, received, or evaded it. He was a Baptist, and lodged with a Baptist minister and his two daugh ters. He fell in love with one of them, pro posed to her, and was accepted. The couple were married without pomp, and after the ceremony the good minister took them aside,