“You owe it to your own merits, my lad!  I will tell you all about it.  To-day I met in the court an old acquaintance of mine—­Mr. Ralph Walsh.  He has been separated from his wife for some time past, living in the South; but he has recently returned to the city, and has sought a reconciliation with her, which, for some reason or other, she has refused.  He next tried to get possession of their children, in order to coerce her through her affection for them; but she suspected his design and frustrated it by removing the children to a place of secrecy.  All this Walsh told me this morning in the court, where he had come to get the habeas corpus served upon the woman ordering her to produce the children in court.  It will be granted, of course, and he will sue for the possession of the children, and his wife will contest the suit; she will contest it in vain, of course, for the law always gives the father possession of the children, unless he is morally, mentally, or physically incapable of taking care of them—­which is not the case with Walsh; he is sound in mind, body, and reputation; there is nothing to be said against him in either respect.”

“What, then, divided him from his family?” inquired Ishmael doubtfully.

“Oh, I don’t know; he had a wandering turn of mind, and loved to travel a great deal; he has been all over the civilized and uncivilized world, too, I believe.”

“And what did she do, in the meantime?” inquired Ishmael, still more doubtfully.

“She?  Oh, she kept a little day-school.”

“What, was that necessary?”

“I suppose so, else she would not have kept it.”

“But did not he contribute to the support of the family?”

“I—­don’t know; I fear not.”

“There was nothing against the wife’s character?”

“Not a breath!  How should there be, when she keeps a respectable school?  And when he himself wishes, in getting possession of the children, only to compel her through her love for them to come to him.”

“Seething the kid in its mother’s milk, or something quite as cruel,” murmured Ishmael to himself.

The judge, who did not know what he was muttering to himself, continued: 

“Well, there is the case, as Walsh delivered it to me.  If there is anything else of importance connected with the case, you will doubtless find it in the brief.  He actually offered the brief to me at first.  He has been so long away that he did not know my present position, and that I had long since ceased to practice.  So when he met me in the courtroom to-day he greeted me as an old friend, told me his business at the court, said that he considered the meeting providential, and offered me his brief.  I explained to him the impossibility of my taking it, and then he begged me to recommend some lawyer.  I named you to him without hesitation, giving you what I considered only your just meed of praise.  He immediately asked me to take charge of the brief and the retaining fee, and offer both to you in his name, and say to you that he should call early to-morrow morning to consult with you.”