The evening light of the summer day flooded into the dining-room; outside a robin was singing. In the room there was constraint and heavy silence, broken only by the slight clatter of the silver or the china. But after a while the judge spoke: "Did Lavinia go to the picnic with young Marley?" he asked. He regretted instantly that he had revived the topic that had given rise to the difficulty, but as it lay on the minds of all, it was impossible, just then, to escape its influence. "I believe so," said Mrs. Blair. "He really seems like a nice young man." The judge scowled. "I don't know," he said. "He's in the office of Wade Powell--I suppose he is the one, isn't he?" He thought it unbecoming that a judge should show an intimate knowledge of the relations of young men who were merely studying law. "Yes, sir," said Chad, maintaining his own dignity. "Everybody seems to speak well of him," said Mrs. Blair. "But I can't quite reconcile that with his selecting Wade Powell as a preceptor. I would hardly consider his influence the best in the world, and I would imagine that Doctor Marley would hold to the same opinion." Judge Blair spoke with a certain disappointment in Doctor Marley. He had gone to hear him preach once or twice, and found, as he said, an intellectual quality in his utterances that he missed in the sermons Mr. Hill had been preaching for twenty years in the Presbyterian church. "Perhaps he doesn't know Wade Powell," said Mrs. Blair. "Doctor Marley is comparatively a stranger here, you know." "Yes, I presume that explains it. But--" he shook his head. He could not forgive any one who showed respect for Wade Powell. "Powell has little business except a certain criminal practice, and now and then a personal injury case." "Is there anything wrong in personal injury cases?" asked Mrs. Blair. The judge looked at his wife in surprise. "Well, I suppose you know, don't you," he said, "that such cases are taken on contingent fees?" He spoke with the natural judicial contempt of the poor litigant. "Of course, dear," she replied, "I shall not undertake to defend Mr. Powell. He's a wild sort." "Yes; a drunkard, practically," said Judge Blair, "and an infidel besides. The moral environment there is certainly not one for a young man--" "Is he really an _infidel_?" asked Mrs. Blair, abruptly dropping her knife and fork. "Well," replied the judge with the judicial affectation of fairness, "he's at least a free-thinker. Perhaps agnostic were the better word. That is one reason why I can not understand Doctor Marley's permitting his son to be associated with him. It seems to me to argue a weakness, or a lack of observation in the doctor, as it does a certain depravity of taste in his son." They discussed Marley until the meal was done, and Connie and Chad had gone out of doors. Judge Blair followed his wife into the sitting-room. "I'm worried, I'll admit," said the judge. "What could it have been that so distressed her?"