And for this cause Ishmael could not sleep, but lay battling all night with his agony.  He arose the next morning pale and ill, from the restless bed and wretched night, but fully resolved to struggle with and conquer his hopeless love.

“I must not, I will not, let this passion enervate me!  I have work to do in this world, and I must do it with all my strength!” he said to himself, as he went into the library.

Ishmael had gradually passed upward from his humble position of amanuensis to be the legal assistant and almost partner of the judge in his office business.  In fact, Ishmael was his partner in everything except a share in the profits; he received none of them; he still worked for his small salary as amanuensis; not that the judge willfully availed himself of the young man’s valuable assistance without giving him due remuneration, but the change in Ishmael’s relations to his employer had come on so naturally and gradually, that at no one time had thought of raising the young man’s salary to the same elevation of his position and services occurred to Judge Merlin.

It was ever by measuring himself with others that Ishmael proved his own relative proportion of intellect, knowledge, and power.  He had been diligently studying law for more than two years.  He had been attending the sessions of the courts of law both in the country and in the city.  And he had been the confidential assistant of Judge Merlin for many months.

In his attendance upon the sessions of the circuit courts in Washington, and in listening to the pleadings of the lawyers and the charges of the judges, and watching the results of the trials—­he had made this discovery—­namely, that he had attained as fair a knowledge of law as was possessed by many of the practicing lawyers of these courts, and he resolved to consult his employer, Judge Merlin, upon the expediency of his making application for admission to practice at the Washington bar.

CHAPTER LV.

A STEP HIGHER.

  He will not wait for chances,
    For luck he does not look;
  In faith his spirit glances
    At Providence, God’s book;
  And there discerning truly
    That right is might at length,
  He dares go forward duly
    In quietness and strength,
  Unflinching and unfearing,
    The flatterer of none,
  And in good courage wearing,
    The honors he has won.

  —­M.F.  Tupper.

Ishmael took an early opportunity of speaking to the judge of his projects.  It was one day when they had got through the morning’s work and were seated in the library together, enjoying a desultory chat before it was time to go to court, that Ishmael said: 

“Judge Merlin, I am about to make application to be admitted to practice at the Washington bar.”

The judge looked up in surprise.

“Why, Ishmael, you have not graduated at any law school!  You have not even had one term of instruction at any such school.”