Ethics -- Fiction; Religion and sociology -- Fiction; Upper class families -- Fiction
The Judge slapped his knee.
"That fellow!" he exclaimed, and ruminated. "Why didn't somebody tell
me?" he added, complainingly. "Why didn't Miller Gorse let me know about
it, instead of licking up a fuss after it's all over?"...
Of all men of my acquaintance I had thought the Judge the last to grow
maudlin over the misfortunes of those who were weak or unfortunate enough
to be defeated and crushed in the struggle for existence, and it was not
without food for reflection that I departed from his presence. To make
Mr. Bering "feel bad" was no small achievement, and Krebs had been
responsible for it, of course,--not Galligan. Krebs had turned up once
more! It seemed as though he were destined to haunt me. Well, I made up
my mind that he should not disturb me again, at any rate: I, at least,
had learned to eliminate sentimentality from business, and it was not
without deprecation I remembered my experience with him at the Capital,
when he had made me temporarily ashamed of my connection with Bill 709. I
had got over that. And when I entered the court room (the tribunal having
graciously granted a rehearing on the ground that it had committed an
error in the law!) my feelings were of lively curiosity and zest. I had
no disposition to underrate his abilities, but I was fortified by the
consciousness of a series of triumphs behind me, by a sense of
association with prevailing forces against which he was helpless. I could
afford to take a superior attitude in regard to one who was destined
always to be dramatic.
As the case proceeded I was rather disappointed on the whole that he was
not dramatic--not even as dramatic as he had been when he defied the
powers in the Legislature. He had changed but little, he still wore
ill-fitting clothes, but I was forced to acknowledge that he seemed to
have gained in self-control, in presence. He had nodded at me before the
case was called, as he sat beside his maimed client; and I had been on
the alert for a hint of reproach in his glance: there was none. I smiled
back at him....
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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