“My dear Miss Minster,” Reuben answered, in a voice so firm and full of force that it bore away in front of it all possibility of suspecting that he was too bold, “when I left you I wanted to tell you, when I wrote to you I tried to have you understand, that if there arose a question of honestly helping you, of protecting you, and the partnership stood between me and that act of honorable service, I would crush the partnership like an eggshell, and put all my powers at your disposal. But I am afraid you did not understand.” The two girls looked at each other, and then at the strong face before them, with the focussed light of the argand burner upon it. “No,” said Kate, “I am afraid we didn’t.” “And so I say to you now,” pursued Reuben, with a sense of exultation in the resolute words as they sounded on his ear, “I will not allow any professional chimeras to bind me to inactivity, to acquiescence, if a wrong is being done to you. And more, I will do all that lies in my power to help you understand the whole situation. And if, when it is all mapped out before us, you need my assistance to set crooked things straight, why, with all my heart you shall have it, and the partnership shall go out of the window.” “If you had said that at the beginning,” sighed Kate. “Ah, then I did not know what I know now!” answered Reuben, holding her eyes with his, while the light on his face grew ruddier. “Well, then, this is what I can tell you,” said the elder girl, “and I am to tell it to you as our lawyer, am I not--our lawyer in the sense that Mr. Boyce is mamma’s lawyer?” Reuben bowed, and settled himself in his chair to listen. It was a long recital, broken now by suggestions from Ethel, now by questions from the lawyer. From time to time he made notes on the blotter before him, and when the narrative was finished he spent some moments in consulting these, and combining them with figures from another paper, in new columns. Then he said, speaking slowly and with deliberation: