unlike the grave respectability of Groth & Son's office, grated on her. The story, the tobacco, the coarse client, the roughness of the circumstances, made her feel that she had made a mistake. But in the midst of her hesitation the other partner entered, and as his face lighted up with recognition, Katy felt more assured, and told the plain story of her lost fortune. Mr. Lorn's face grew grave as she proceeded, and, at the conclusion, he asked time. Let us note that his partner pronounced Overdo to be a "blubber-headed swindler," and wanted to take out a warrant at once; but the other was more skilled in civil proceedings. These are notes of the brief of the case he submitted to his new client, a few days later:

In applying for the benefit of the act, the agent had omitted Katy Keith's name from the schedule, or list of creditors; consequently no notice of the proceedings had been served upon her. If the omission had been in willful fraud, the court, on proof of the fact, could annul the certificate. But the law devolves that difficult proof upon the creditor. Failing that, the bankrupt's certificate operates as a complete discharge of existing liabilities. In effect, it made the unsuspecting girl's confidence in her grandfather's agent a penal offense, attended with forfeiture of the debt. That was Judge Groth's view of the case, and it may be that of the legal reader.

But Katy Keith's new adviser argued differently. Every judgment, civil or criminal, presupposes the presence of the parties in court, and that presence can only be brought about by legal notice. The bankrupt's petition institutes an action in equity forms, and the suit is governed by fixed principles of law. It could not be asserted that Miss Keith was by actual or legal notice, in person or by attorney, in court in this suit in bankruptcy. It was the petitioner's act or omission that deprived her of the notice which the law so jealously defends as her right, and not any neglect or want of due diligence on her part in obeying it.

Certainly, said Mr. Lorn, the decree in such a case binds all parties thereto, and covers all property attached or surrendered. There is no fraud alleged and provable, whereby the discharge may be annulled; it must be held good to cover the claims and property established of record. But it does not bind those who are not parties to the suit, nor does it pretend to bind them. If Miss Keith, after a time, lost her right, upon discovery, to come upon the distributees of the bankrupt's assets for her pro rata, there remains her existing legal remedy in personam against the agent and his acquisitions subsequent to the bankruptcy. The bankrupt's certificate of discharge did not apply to her, innocently and without laches no party to the action. She was free to pursue her remedy in the State courts of law, and this suit the firm of Brown & Lorn, on a contingent fee, were willing to undertake. The meaning of this term was explained to her, greatly to Katy's satisfaction, as she had secretly grieved over the cost of proceedings she was about to institute.

Our brave little woman was very proud of having set this machinery in motion all by her small self, and had great confidence in her young counselor. He would win her cause, and acquire great distinction for defending the orphan, perhaps be early promoted to a judgeship; for this simple girl had no other thought than that all citizens were actively searching for the most liberal and high-minded men to fill such responsible positions which is, perhaps, the most singular opinion held by this eccentric young lady.

With that premised, let us look upon the friends she gathered around her in her home over the fancy and trimming store; and first, of course, her lover, Earl Groth. She sits at the window with bright pieces of colored silk about her. Earl sits by, sulky and querulous, as he has been ever since she lost her fortune. At length he breaks out pettishly,

"I don't think you care a cent. I don't believe you have heard a word."

"I really must have dropped it, though," cries Katy, looking around, "I know I had twelve and Let me look under the chair. Ah, there you are, all mussed up. Well, an't you sure of it?" to Earl, at last.

"You won't talk, or hardly let me touch you, or hold your hand, Katy, as you used to," complains the lover.

"There! the floss is gone!" she exclaims. "Did I ever! No; here it is. Well, there! but you must give it right back to me," and she pokes out her little needle-scarred finger-tips, as if they were the scissors or a penknife; "but you must give it right straight back. I am using it all the time," the last very slowly, for she is comparing the shades of silk held at arms-length, with her head cunningly to one side, as she speaks. The reader knows one cannot compare colors without that, but think of Earl! To clasp the soft, shy fingers under the cardtable, or to press the little pink palm as you walk from church under the dusky shadows, is surely sweet; but to have the negligent little hand thrust at you like a chip! Earl angrily rejects the offering, and she does not even notice the rejection. She takes back that useful little hand, and puts it to work, quietly, unconscious of the rising of the waters. He gets loud and vehement, expostulatory, and she explains, the needle still slipping with snaky glitter through the bright leaves of silk :

-

"Now, Earl, how can you say that? Are we not working, me and Mr. Lorn? You know you said you could not sup

"Me and Mr. Lorn indeed!" mimics he. "I expect you know as much as he does. The governor says it never will come to anything. Even Ben just plays with the case, and trips up your Mr. Lorn, every motion day."

"Ah," says Katy, in perfect good-humor and satisfaction, and like a pretty, green-coated parrot, "Ben is very safe on a plain note of hand, but for a thing like this " and she shakes her head, as if nothing less than Charles O'Connor, Caleb Cushing, or Mr. Lorn and self were equal to it.

It was no doubt a foolish fancy of the simple little miss, but the thought that in her suit she was partly doing something for Earl which he could not do for himself, was perhaps the only tie of real interest remaining to her between them. This unsatisfactory interview was the last for months; for the commercial traveler had his business engagements to fill. Ben Groth remained on guard. Poor Ben, the self-instituted watch over the fruit he so dearly coveted for himself, and yet which he was never to taste! He was in love with Katy too. How could he help it, seeing how good and cheerful she was in her adversity? and he was angry as well as jealous at his brother's cowardly procrastination. He would have married Katy, if he could, and a dozen mothers-in-law, today, while Earl shilly-shallied, and those confounded shysters, Brown & Lorn, hung about her so. He did not cease to deride them to Katy, which, take it altogether, was a more stupid policy than even his brother's dilatory wooing.

The shysters were certainly becoming attentive; especially Brown. This was an ingenious young professional, who

never read a book, never drew a plea, and never made a speech. Yet he would talk to the judge about it," talk to the commonwealth's attorney, gossip with juries; and so contrived a considerable success in police and criminal business. His female acquaintance, heretofore, had been more limited than select, and, as he confessed he had not been in church since he came to the city, Katy must needs take him. But she was almost sorry for it. For, though awed at first by the novel solemnity, and the grand music, that soon wore off. He fidgeted; he scrawled notes to Katy with the stub of a pencil in the hymn - book. Repressed in that, he winked and made faces at the row of negroes on the back benches, till they exhibited one glittering row of ivories. Caught in the act, he made such a sudden assumption of sombre gravity that Katy struggled with a laugh, and the blacks te-he'd right out.

He took Katy and her mother to visit his parents, plain, simple country people, well to do in a sufficient humble way, and the guests were welcomed with hearty hospitality. The mother took Katy to that altar under the verbenabed where the dear, good daughter lay, and told her simple story- a story oh! how common. The child better than other children, and brighter, and as one set apart for holier things. As she concluded, she took Katy in her arms and told her she was like her, for all the difference of hair and eyes. No doubt it was true. There are visible resemblances in things spiritual, and of every thing that was good this young woman in some way reminded people.

William Angus Lorn was not so frequent a visitor as his partner, and yet he was, perhaps, more inwardly and essentially moved by the sweet patience he saw, than his more mercurial friend. He had returned to his native city after the war, to find everything changed. Many gallant fellows had fallen, but their sweethearts married, and the world smoothed over them. Nothing lies so lightly on earth's bosom as its dead. He visited law-offices where he used to

discuss Tennyson, Longfellow, and The Professor at the Breakfast-Table. They were debating the validity of negro testimony in the courts of law. The college had been a hospital and was now a shell; the sweet old humanities were dead. The feeling seemed to be, The old world is going to pieces, but it will last our day, and there is nothing to do but to make money. At church, he was told the Lord's hand was in the war, and religious service seemed generally busy about Cæsar's business. He had welcomed peace, even at the terrible price he thought that his section had paid, and this faithless, irreligious fever was that civil life he had longed for. It hurt him; for he knew his own Christian morality had been sadly wounded in the storms of four years' war. He had come home to be refreshed and reinvigorated by that old belief he had received in the old log church. He saw no evidence of such faith about him. No one believes, but every one believes he believes, because he acquiesces. That is the curse of it. There is hope in doubt. An atheist or an infidel is not passive; his mind is awake. But what shall be said of him who believes no more than the infidel believes, yet is so wrapped up in his besotted confidence, that he hears nothing, cares nothing, trusts nothing?

Some such thoughts pass through the young man's mind as he sits with Katy Keith in church, admiring her simple faith and single, unsullied devotion. He knows her pure soul is at peace in communion with higher things, which he may not approach, and that she will go back to her daily toil, refreshed by an undying hope. It humbies him to think she believes implicitly all the man yonder in the velvet-cushioned pulpit utters, while he believes nothing or almost nothing, and almost scorns it and himseif. "No minister," he says bitterly, "does his work right who assumes vital truths as premises. It is better to question, to awake the sleeper to doubt, than to leave him to sleep; and for the rest—who cares for all the empty thunders of the Vatican?”

Some of these thoughts he expresses

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as they walk quietly home, and she is distressed but hopeful. Pray, only pray," she says. "Man cannot help you; God will."

"Pray," he says. "Yes, if I can. I can frame phrases of entreaty, but the only stir of vitality within me is the consciousness that it is a lie."

Still she says, "Pray; there is much done by prayer: Lord, help thou mine unbelief." And she too will pray for this poor, erring soul, sick of the world and yet not well toward heaven.

Was he entirely sincere in all this? A great satirist of the age has said that oftenest a mean motive lurks at the bottom of a noble act. May we not as well hope that as often a generous emotion may be at the prompting of a seemingly selfish act? That it was pleasing to excite his kindly listener's interest we need not doubt; but the pain of an empty longing for a better faith induced the thought.

It pleased Katy very much when her pastor, Mr. Jargony, called while the young lawyer was visiting her, for she believed he would remove those painful doubts. This was the one great blunder Katy made in that period of trial, and it cost her severely. Set a polemic at an honest doubter, and the chances are you will make a heathen. Controversy is provoked; arguments to vindicate, not to elucidate, are hunted up, and vague disbelief becomes pronounced rebellion.

These, therefore, were the associations and influences, the aids and discouragements, that surrounded the young girl when she entered upon her famous battle to recover her property. But to treat of he steps therein deserves a separate chapter.

III.

HER CHAMPION PLAYS AND WINS. GIVE US THIS DAY OUR DAILY BREAD.

IF Brown & Lorn, attorneys at law, had any vague ideas that Groth & Son would not act vigorously in defense of

the agent's interests, they were soon dispossessed of them. The unusual course of proceeding against a bankrupt in the State court of common pleas had rather surprised the old lawyer. Yet, while he pooh-poohed it, he felt that a popularlyelected judge might look at the case very differently from the Federal court, sitting in bankruptcy to review its own proceedings. When Mr. Lorn, therefore, proposed an agreed case, that is, a case in which litigants submit acknowledged facts to legal judgment, it was roughly rejected. "We deny that your client has any case," said the judge. "Prove that first, and then we will talk about adjudication."

Then followed a system of adroit legal procrastination, in which the older firm had the advantage of experience and position. One of the first and simplest things a lawyer learns is the art of baffling his adversary by delays, and he lays it aside only with the profession. A dilatory motion for plausible cause is always easy to concoct and often difficult to resist; and this was the present tactics of the defense.

John

But other facts were developed as Brown & Lorn prosecuted their necessary inquiries, showing the practical wisdom of the old lawyer's repugnance to accepting a brief in the case. Overdo, Esq., with irreproachable bank credit, was perfectly and imperviously law proof. He never let a note go to protest, and he never paid a debt unsecured by that sort of evidence. No execution could penetrate to those secret recesses where he stored his ample gains. If Brown & Lorn were presented with a judgment, they would be scarcely nearer any practical result than before.

It would be tedious to enter into the minute details of a suit at law. Mr. Overdo was one of those cautious clients who do not confide entirely in counsel. When he learned that Miss Keith and her mother were lodging with the Konigratz, and that the suit was actually commenced, some facts in his knowledge made him think it advisable to break that household up. In pursuance

of this policy he devised a plan by which he thought it could be accomplished, and a safe investment be secured at the same time. Ben Groth learned the contemplated act, and, not connecting it with the case of Keith v. Overdo, gave Katy warning. It was no less than the purchase and immediate possession of the Konigratz building. Ben brought this news as likely to transpire in a day or two, and added that a cottage of his father's was now vacant, to which the two women were welcome at a moderate rent.

It put Katy in a flutter, and as soon as he was gone she hastened to confer with her landlady. "Holy Virgin!" exclaimed the woman; "and did I dream three nights running of losing the front door key for nothing? Lauf, Taddy, and bring me the lawyer so quick as never was."

When Mr. Lorn arrived, he could only say the landlord had a perfect right to sell, and give possession at the expiration of Mrs. Konigratz's lease, which was now at hand. Of that he had already warned the woman. But his keenest questioning was over the matter of a purchase by Overdo. He said he must learn all the facts quietly, and even employed Taddy Konigratz to assist him. Let us see what he meant by this and what he made of it.

A day later the scene is in the clerk's office of the county court. Present, John Overdo, Esq., Judge Groth, Mr. Schlater, who is the present owner of the fancy and trimming store premises, his wife, and Mr. Padoun, a stranger to us. The lady sits a little apart, and there are clerks recording and copying, and a stray lawyer or two examining deeds and wills; but nothing of Brown & Lorn. A deputy sheriff, deep in the morning paper, sits near the four gentlemen, who are lively and talkative.

"Five thousand six hundred and seventy-two dollars and sixteen cents,' remarks Mr. Padoun to the agent. "I have brought the cash, as you preferred it. Stop; here is the cent.

That

makes it even, if you will give me a receipt," and he tenders the money.

The deputy sheriff is not looking at his paper now, but at the money; money in a large, crisp roll is pleasant to look

at.

"Pay it into Groth's hands," says Overdo, briskly. "I don't want to touch it; but here is your receipt as soon as it is counted."

“Mr. Schlater," remarks the judge as he carelessly takes the money, "your wife must sign her release before the clerk, and not in your presence. By that time I will have the money counted and ready for you."

This makes the transaction plain. The money paid by Mr. Padoun goes with instantaneous possession through Overdo's hands to Schlater for the Konigratz property. As the judge says "All right,' Overdo, like a playful elephant, punches Padoun in the side and hands him the receipt. The judge is looking at Schlater, who is approaching with the deed, when the deputy sheriff taps him lightly on the shoulder, lays one hand on the money, and with the other presents a square slip of paper partly written, partly printed. "Five thousand, six, seventy-two, sixteen. I'll take the chips if you please." He says it pleasantly, and draws the money out of the judge's nerveless fingers.

"The devil!" exclaims Groth, as if he saw the very thing and knew it at once, as he stares at the square of paper.

"What in the do you mean?” thunders Overdo, frightened out of his obese playfulness.

"Oh, nothing," says the deputy, carelessly turning the money over his thumb; "only a little attachment in the suit of Keith v. Overdo, levying on funds of the defendant in possession of Fungus Groth, Esq.," and he nods and turns away, and in ten minutes looks as if he had forgotten the whole affair.

"Only a little attachment," etc. Why, it locks up Katy's fortune secure in the treasury vaults of the court, for her. Overdo looks more intensely himself; not an exaggerated boy, but an