"Thank you," replied Leonard: "let me save the congratulations for the
day I lay the office down. Do you, then, really think it high and
honorable?"

"Ah," she rejoined, in a tone of reproach and defense that tortured
Arthur, "you know I honor the pursuit of the law."

Leonard showed a glimmer of drollery. "Pursuit of the law, yes," he
said; "but the pursuit of the lawbreaker"--

"Even that," replied Isabel, "has its frowning honors."

"But I'm much afraid it seems to you," he said, "a sort of blindman's
buff played with a club. It often looks so to the pursued, they say."

Isabel gave her chin a little lift, and raised her tone for those behind
her: "We shall try not to be among the pursued, Ruth and Arthur and I."

The young lawyer's smile broadened. "My mind is relieved," he said.

"Relieved!" exclaimed Isabel, with a rosy toss. "Ruth, dear, here is
your brother in distress lest Arthur or we should embarrass him in his
new office by breaking the laws! Mr. Byington, you should not confess
such anxieties, even if you are justified in them!"

His response came with meditative slowness and with playful eyes:
"Whenever I am justified in having such anxieties, they shall go
unconfessed."

"That relieves _my_ fears," laughed Isabel, and caught a quick hint