Betrothal -- Fiction; Courtship -- Fiction; Middle West -- Fiction; United States -- Social life and customs -- Fiction
"Don't you make any entry--any memorandum?" he asked, still unable to
separate himself from the idea that something formal, something legal,
should mark the beginning of such an important epoch.
"Oh, you keep track of the date," said Powell, "and at the end of three
years I'll give you a certificate. You may find that you can do most of
your reading at home, but come around."
Marley looked about the office, trying to imagine himself in this new
situation.
"I'd like, you know," he said, "to do something, if I could, to repay
you for your trouble."
"That's all right, my boy," said Powell. Then he added as if the thought
had just come to him:
"Say, can you run a typewriter?"
"I can learn."
"Well, that's more than I can do," said Powell, glancing at his new
machine. "I've tried, but it would take a stationary engineer to operate
that thing. You might help out with my letters and my pleadings now and
then. And I'd like to have you around. You'd make good company."
"Well," said Marley, "I'll be here in the morning." He still clung to
the idea that he was to be a part of the office, to be an identity in
the local machinery of the law. As he rose to go, a young man appeared
in the doorway. He was tall, and the English cap and the rough Scotch
suit he wore, with the trousers rolled up over his heavy tan shoes,
enabled Marley to identify him instantly as young Halliday. He was
certain of this when Powell, looking up, said indifferently:
"Hello, George. Raining in London?"
"Oh, I say, Powell," replied Halliday, ignoring a taunt that had grown
familiar to him, "that Zeller case--we would like to have that go over
to the fall term, if you don't mind."
"Why don't you settle it?" asked Powell.
Halliday was leaning against the door-post, and had drawn a short brier
pipe from his pocket. Before he answered, he paused long enough to fill
it with tobacco. Then he said:
"You'll have to see the governor about that--it's a case he's been
looking after."
"Oh, well," said Powell, with his easy acquiescence, "all right."
Halliday had pressed the tobacco into the bowl of the pipe and struck a
match.
"Then, I'll tell old Bill," he said, pausing in his sentence to light
his pipe, "to mark it off the assignment."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account