“Law is not so difficult,” responds young Aaron, quite as dry as the good doctor. “Indeed, in some respects it is vastly like theology. That is to say, it is anything which is boldly asserted and plausibly maintained.” The good doctor says he will answer for young Aaron’s boldness of assertion. “And yet,” continues the good doctor, with just a glimmer of sarcasm, “the last time I saw you, you gave me the catalogue of your virtues, and declared them the virtues of a soldier. How comes it, then, that in the midst of battles you laid down steel for parchment, gave up arms for law?” “Washington drove me from the army,” responds young Aaron, with convincing gravity. “As I told you, sir, by nature I am a soldier, and turned lawyer only through necessity. And Washington was the necessity.” CHAPTER IX--SON-IN-LAW HAMILTON NOW when young Aaron, in the throbbing metropolis of New York, finds himself a lawyer and a married man, with an office by the Bowling Green and a house in fashionable Maiden Lane, he gives himself up to a cool survey of his surroundings. What he sees is fairly and honestly set forth by the good Dr. Bellamy, after that dominie returns to Bethlehem and Madam Bellamy. The latter, like all true women, is curious, and gives the doctor no peace until he relates his experiences. “The city,” observes the veracious doctor, looking up from tea and muffins, “is large; some say as large as twenty-seven thousand. I walked to every part of it, seeing all a stranger should. There is much opulence there. The rich, of whom there are many, have not only town houses, but cool country seats north of the town. Their Broad Way is a fine, noble street!--very wide!--fairer than any in Boston!” “Doctor!” expostulates Madam Bellamy, who is from Massachusetts. “Mother, it is fact! They have, too, a new church, which cost twenty thousand pounds. At their shipyard I saw an East Indiaman of eight hundred tons--an immense vessel! The houses are grand, being for the better part painted--even the brick houses.” “What! Paint a brick house!” “It is their ostentation, mother; their senseless parade of wealth. One sees the latter everywhere. I was to breakfast at General Schuyler’s; it was an elaborate affair. They assured me their best people were present; Coster, Livingston, Bleecker, Beekman, Jay were some of the names. A more elegant repast I never ate--all set as it was with a profusion of massive plate. There were a silver teapot and a silver coffeepot-----” “Solid silver?” “Ay! The king’s hall-mark was on them; I looked. And finest linen, too--white as snow! Also cups of gilt; and after the toast, plates of peaches and a musk melon! It was more a feast than a breakfast.” “Why, it is a tale of profligacy!”