Literature, Modern -- 19th century -- Periodicals; Science -- Periodicals
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LIPPINCOTT'S MAGAZINE.
_NOVEMBER, 1885._
Copyright, 1885, by J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY.
THE LADY LAWYER'S FIRST CLIENT.
TWO PARTS.--II.
What with Mrs. Stiles's ankle and the law's delays, the case was not
tried until September. But at the September term Stiles _vs._ The
Railway Company was reached, and stood at the head of the list.
On the morning of the fated day Mrs. Tarbell could have proceeded to the
court-room in state, for not only did the entire Stiles family present
itself at her office three-quarters of an hour before the time, but Mr.
Mecutchen, the tobacconist, also dropped in, with an air of always being
early at trials.
"I couldn't keep ma at home, Mrs. Tarbell," said Miss Stiles briefly,
but with some little shame. "She would come. She thought it would take
an hour and a half to get here from Pulaski Street; didn't you, ma?"
Mrs. Stiles gave an agitated groan and looked about helplessly for a
chair. She was walking with a cane, and had on a miraculous black silk,
the seams of which were like the ridges of a ploughed field. Miss
Georgiana Stiles, the younger daughter, was almost invisible under a
straw hat with feathers waving from its pinnacled crown. Miss Celandine,
by no means a bad-looking young lady, wore her best black jersey,
buttoned at the throat, over her cambric body, her best pique skirt,
trimmed with torchon lace, her white silk mitts, and her blue-and-white
bonnet. After settling Mrs. Stiles in a corner with Georgiana, Tecumseh
Sherman, and Augustus, Celandine and Mr. Mecutchen disappeared, to go
and stand on the door-step. Mrs. Tarbell guessed where they were going,
and would have liked to hint that the door-step was not a dignified
place for her client, but, if the truth must be told, she was afraid to
do so. For Miss Stiles had by this time utterly and completely
subjugated her, and Mrs. Tarbell hardly knew which of them was the
attorney of record in Stiles _vs._ The Railway Company. There can be no
doubt that Miss Celandine was an admirable young lady. She was paying
the expenses of the case out of her own savings,--savings which had been
the secret result of secret labors with the pen and type-writer. As soon
as the accident happened she quitted the High School, put aside her
books, and divided her time between nursing her mother and keeping the
books of a successful but illiterate milliner, who offered her a place;
and she gave so many other evidences of good sense and determination
that Mrs. Tarbell felt it would be hopeless to try to resist her. Her
decision did not seem to have altered in the least, nor was she at all
discouraged by Mrs. Tarbell's warnings; and Mrs. Tarbell found that in
every conversation which took place on the subject Mrs. Tarbell began as
a philosopher and ended as a disputant. All that could be done was to
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