"A dog!" cried Arthur. "Why, that's my case! I'm in it!" Norton Ward grinned; Arthur grinned; but most broadly of all grinned Henry. Clerk's fees from both sides for Henry, to say nothing of the dramatic interest of civil war, of domestic struggle! "Do you mean you're for the plaintiff? How in thunder did you get hold of it?" "That's my little secret," Arthur retorted triumphantly. It was not necessary to tell all the world the train of events which led up to his brief in _Crewdson v. The Great Southern Railway Company_. "Well, I congratulate you, old chap," said Norton Ward heartily. Then he grinned again. "Come and dine to-morrow, and we'll try to settle it." "Settle it be----! Not much!" said Arthur. "But I'll dine all right." Norton Ward went off into his room, laughing. That was an awful idea--settling! Even though advanced in jest, it had given him a little shock. But he felt pretty safe. He had read Miss Crewdson's letters; she was most emphatically not a settling woman! Her dog, her whole dog, and nothing but her dog, was what Miss Crewdson wanted. Arthur sat down before his fire and lit his pipe. He abandoned himself to a gratified contemplation of the turn in his fortunes. A great moment when a young man sees his chosen profession actually opening before him, when dreams and hopes crystallize into reality, when he plucks the first fruit from branches which a little while ago seemed so far out of reach! This moment it was now Arthur's to enjoy. And there was more. For he was not only exulting; he was smiling in a sly triumph. What young man does not smile in his sleeve when the Wisdom of the Elders is confounded? And what good-natured Elder will not smile with him--and even clap his hands? "It's my own fault if that thousand pounds I put in the farce doesn't turn out the best investment of my life!" thought Arthur. CHAPTER XXXIII A NEW VISION