IT WAS A LOVE MATCH.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 6064, 3 February 1891, Page 4

IT WAS A LOVE MATCH.

CHAPTER VII. TWO OF A KIND. It was very near night when Mr Halfovd and his clerk alighted fro_a the street-car at Scollay's Building and proceeded to their office on Court street. The office was on the second floor of a block since torn away to niako room for a barn-likti structure of marble—an office dingy and littered, but easy of access, and in the centre of much business. The lawyer unlocked an iron door upon the face of the rear wall, and having swung , it opeD, another door, also of iron, was revealed ; and this was the entrance to a fire-proof .safe, where valuable and important documents were kept. When the newly made will and accompanying papers had been deposited in an oaken drawer upon which wae pasted a slip of paperbearing the written name St. Glair,'' and the doors had been re-cloged and relooked, Halford turned to his clerk. " jdugo," he said, " you will understand that thia client is one of the most; valuable on my list. I think I may say the most valuable. I shall not live forever, and who .knows but that you may succeed me in business—" The clerk interrupted his employer by a shake of the head. " No, no, Mr Halford. I shall not settle in Boston. And let us hope you may be spared for many a long year to come. You are still hearty and strong, and your temperate life gives promise of increasing usefulness and honors." The old lawyer was not ineensible to such flattery, and he regarded his clerk with a benign appreciation. " Be your choice of location what it will," he said, " you will surely succeed. And yet I could wish that you might consent to remain with me. But wo will let that pass, since you shake your head again. I was remarking to you concerning our client — Madame St. Clair. She has her peculiarities, as you may have observed ; and you are aware that the first study of an attorney should be to accommodate himself to the idio?yncrasit)S of those whom he would truly serve. Madame St. Olair' is anxious that her private affairs should not be known. She shrinks from being made the theme of gossip, as she shrinks from public gaze. You will bear this iv mind and keep your knowledge to yourself. There is one safe rule to follow—l have followed it all my life, and you can adopt it with profit: When you have taken a client, consider that the details of said client's business are locked in your inmost bosom, and that your client alone baa the key." Hugo intimated that he had already resolved upou such a course. " And," he added, "be sure that I hold the privacy of your business, to which I am necessarily admitted, as something sacred and inviolate." " I think we understand one another, said Halford, with a commendatory smile. "Of cour-e, people have seen ua go to Madame St. Clair'a house ; and it is generally known that she is failing. The curious will be inclined to ask questions, aud thosa who are not curious are very few." "I understand perfectly," returned Caspar. " That which is looked in your safe is to me as a sacred mystery." As Adam Halford regarded his ulerk, he behold a man in appearance little less than a faint. So Adam Halford himself thought. You may Bay, perhape, that Adam Halford was not'a student of human nature- that he could not read physiognomy. Allow mo to say that in an adjoining office was a professor who had made physiognomy a study, and who had often been called into Court to testify as an expert upon the character of hand-writing. The professor had inarkfid Hugo well, and had studied him carefully, and ha hud said of him : " That man, if lie had an end to accomplish, would, admit no obstaclo which he had power to overcome. If his end were a great one I should de<;m my life as a fleeting shadow if it stood in his way." " But would you trust him ?" a neighbor had once asked. And tha professor had replied : " With hi:j interest secured, I would trust him to the uttermost bounds." " But with his interest in opposition to you?" "To trust him then would oa to slsep upon a mine to which the match had been applied !" And among them all there was not a suspicion that Caspar Hugo had an interest in opposition, to the interest of his employer, or to those of his clients; and so the belief was general that old Adam Halford had secured the services of a most excellent and trustworthy clerk. It was dusk when the lawyer and his clerk had completed their business for the day, and they came out from the office together. A brief conference at the lower door upon a particular item in the morrow's routine, and then they separated, Mr Halford going toward Washington street, as his dwelling was at the South End. Hugo stood upon the sidewalk and watched his employer until he had _ turned the corner fronThio sight, after which, he took his own way up Court street. He stepped in at a saloou and got a glass of brandy, and as he came out he turned down Hanover street, thence into Portland, until he arrived at a narrow, dingy alley, tho entrance to which was beneath a dilapidated wooden arch. Down this alley he found a door which he opened with a latch-ker.- and, upon the second-floor of the dwelling "thus entered, he found the apartment he sought. It was a respectably furnished room, and opening from it were two email bed-chanAerc, which appeared to complete the suite. It was a retired place, shut out from all passing observation, and the outer door by which Hugo had come in and thestairs'hehad ascended had no other use but to give acceas to these three apartments. There was an attic overhead, but it was in use only as a stowhole for the lessees of the rooms below. In the chief apartment mentioned, a man waa sitting when the clerk entered. He was a man past the middle-age—fifty, perhaps, and he may have been more—respectably habited in dressing-gown _ and clippers. He was a man of medium height, heavily and strongly built, his only beard a heavy moustache of jetty blackness, while his hair, curling naturally about his ears and neck, was of the same ebon hue. But it was to bs seen at a glance, by one at all ■obaecvant of such matter.'!, that the jetty hue of hair a-id beard was the result of artificial dye. Close to the skin, upon the. upper lip, might have been discovered eu'ht-and-forty hours' growth of beard of silvery glowing. Tho lower jaw whs broad and rtronar, the >«.sp prominent, the cheek-bones high, and the brow low and receding. The eyes seemed, at first glunce, to be small; but the appearance wus owing to their bein? so deeply set beneatu tee overhanging browa. They Wero of tlio very darkest hazel. Aa the two men caino together m the light, there was to be observed a strong rcee'mblance between them. There was tho came shapo of head and tho same general contour cf features ; and in form they wero much alike, allowing for the tendency to ■corpulence in t.bn elder. It is safu to any that tkey were father and son. He of the dres'insr gown irad flippers called himself *' Alexander Hugo." But his n<imo was riot in the city directory, nor had the ward committee or the district si'i.-.'sasors ever found him. If he vras known outside of his lodging place, it ir.ijst have been by another name. " Caspar," spoke the older man, aicer he had c.iught a view of the others face by tho fading .%ht, " you have been fortunat3."_ The young man, who had drawn a chair for the purpose of sitting down, stopped in his movement, »nd regarded his father attentively. "What makes you think bo r " I can see it in your eye." " Do I show any sign of jubilation S , " '• No. You are too well schooled for that. But I can ccc that a burden of doubt has been removed. I should judge from your looks, that you had discovered a new and promising path." "You think bo r" " I think so, my boy. Am I not right '?" " Let us eat first, and we will talk afterwards. I think I cau interest you." ITO UK CONTINUED.I