"Oh, well, that was the position of all the great lawyers once,"
she replied, laughing. Marstern's father was wealthy, and all knew
that he could afford to be briefless for a time.
"I may never be great; but I shall work as hard as any of them,"
he continued. "To tell you the honest truth, however, this would
be the happiest Christmas Eve of my life if I had a downright suit
on my hands. Why can't I be frank with you and say I'd like to
begin the chief suit of my life now and here--a suit for this
little hand? I'd plead for it as no lawyer ever pleaded before. I
settled that much down on the ice."
"And if I hadn't happened to behave on the ice in a manner
agreeable to your lordship, you would have pleaded with the other
girl?" she remarked, withdrawing her hand and looking him directly
in the eyes.
"What makes you think so?" he asked somewhat confusedly.
"You do."
He sprang up and paced the room a few moments, then confronted her
with the words, "You shall have the whole truth. Any woman that I
would ask to be my wife is entitled to that," and he told her just
what the attitude of his mind had been from the first.
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