"Why, what do you propose to do ?" he demanded.
"Do what I have been doing for the three past years; work for
myself, and pay my board from the proceeds of my own labor."
"What, you go back to the merchants, do you? You are wiser than
I thought. The law would not give you your bread here for twenty
years in this city."
"You are mistaken, uncle," I said, good humoredly--"it is from the
law that I propose to get my bread."
"Indeed!--You are even more sanguine than I thought you. But, pray,
upon what do you base your expectations?--the talents, I suppose."
I felt the rankling of this well-known and offensive sneer, but
replied simply to the point:-"No, sir, upon assurances which you will probably think far more
worthy of respect. I have already been employed by Mr. Edgerton
as an attorney, at a salary of six hundred dollars."
"Ah, indeed! Well, you are a fortunate fellow, I must say, to get
such a helping hand at the outset. But you may want some small
amount to begin with--you can not draw upon Mr. Edgerton before
services are rendered, and if fifty or a hundred dollars, Edward--"
"I thank you, sir;--so far from wanting money, I should be almost
able to lend some. I have saved some two hundred from my mercantile
salary"
I enjoyed the ghastly grin which rose to his features. It was
evident that he was not pleased that I should be independent. He
had set out with the conviction, when my father died, that my
support and education would devolve upon him, and though they did
not, yet it was plain enough to me that he was not unwilling that
such should be the impression of the community. I had disarmed
him entirely by the simplest process, and, mortified at being
disappointed, he was disposed to hate the youth who had baffled
him. It was the strangest thing in the world that such should be
the feeling of any man, and that, too, in reference to so near a
relation; but the case is nevertheless true. I saw it in his looks
that moment--I felt it in his accents. I KNEW that such was the real
feeling in his soul. There are motives which grow from vanities,
piques, rivalries, arid the miserable ostentations of a small spirit,
which act more terribly upon the passions of man, than even the
desire of gain or the love of woman. The heart of Mr. Clifford,
was, after its particular fashion, a blind heart, like my own.
"Well, I am glad you are so well off. You will dine with us on
Sunday, I suppose?"
My affirmative was a matter of course; and, on Sunday, the evident
gratification of Julia when she saw me, amply atoned for all her
father's asperities and injustice. She had heard of my success--and
though in a sneer from the lips of her father it was not the
less productive of an evident delight to her. She met me with the
expression of this delight upon all her features.