A smile.

“It is law Latin, and most of it would have puzzled Cicero and Virgil, I fear.  Are you a Latin scholar?”

“I’m not a scholar at all.  I’ve been an idler, generally, and have picked up only a few phrases of Latin.  I’ve a brother, a student with Giddings & Wade, at Jefferson, who would have told me all I want to know, but I had a fancy to find it out first hand.”

“Exactly;” and the General thought he looked like a youth who would not take things second-hand.  “They are able lawyers, and it is said Giddings will retire from the bar and run for Congress.  It is thought that Mr. Whittlesey will resign, and make an opening.”

Bart thought that the General spoke of this with interest, and he made another dab at Blackstone.  He then wandered off to a small but select case of miscellaneous books.  “Adam Smith!” he said, with animation; “I never saw that before.  How interesting it must be to get back to the beginning of things.  And here is Junius, whom I have only read about! and Hume! and Irving! and Scott’s Novels!  Oh dear, oh dear!  General, what a happy man you must be, with all these about you, and these newspapers, to come and go between you and the outside world.”

“Oh!  I don’t know.  I have but few books, compared with real libraries, and yet I must say I have more than I make useful.”

Bart plunged into Ivanhoe for a moment, and then laid it down with a sigh.

The General, who found much in the frank enthusiasm of Bart to attract him, asked him many questions about himself, surroundings, etc., all of which were answered with a modest frankness, that won much on the open, manly nature of Ford.

Bart said he most of all wanted to study law, but he did not know how to accomplish it.  He was without means, and wanted to remain with his mother, and he wanted only to look at the books, and learn a little about what he would have to do, the time, etc.  The General said “the laws of Ohio required two years’ study, before admission, which would be upon examination before the Supreme Court, or by a committee of lawyers appointed for that purpose; lawyers who received students usually charged fifty or sixty dollars per year for use of books and instruction, the last of which often did not amount to much.”

Bart looked wistfully at the books, and arose to go.  The General asked him to remain to dinner with such hearty cordiality, that Bart assented, and the General took him into the house and introduced him to Mrs. Ford, a tall, slender woman, of fine figure, with striking features, and really handsome; of very kindly manners, and full of genuine good womanly qualities, who believed in her husband, and was full of ambition for him.

The quiet, easy manners, and frank, sparkling conversation of Bart, won her good-will at once.

“Was he acquainted with Judge Markham’s people?”

“A little.”