I had known. The carpet sank under my feet as I went to the window.

I stood looking at the Jersey hills, blue and fair in the distance, and
dreaming of Helen, who was to bless and crown my good fortune, when I
heard a step at the door and a young man came in--a tall, blonde, supple
fellow not much older than I. Then the Judge appeared, ponderous, slow of
tread, immaculate of dress; the same, unless his iron-gray locks have
retreated yet farther from his wall of a brow, that I have remembered him
from boyhood.

"Burke!" he said, "I am glad to see you. Welcome to New York and to this
office, my boy!"

The grasp of his big warm hand was as good as the words and the eyes
beneath his heavy gray brows were full of kindness as, holding both my
hands in his, he drew me toward the young man who had preceded him. With a
winning smile the latter turned.

"Hynes," said the Judge, with a heartiness that made one forget his formal
manner, "you have heard me speak of Burke's father, the boyhood companion
with whom, when the finny tribes were eager, I sometimes strayed from the
strait and narrow path that led to school. Burke, Hynes is the sportsman
here--our tiger-slayer. He beards in their lairs those Tammany ornaments
of the bench whom the flippant term 'necessity Judges,' because of their
slender acquaintance with the law."

"Glad to see you, Burke," said Hynes, as dutifully we laughed together at
the time-honoured jest.

I knew from the look of him that he was a good fellow, and he had an