Chapter 26 Summary

Jake awakens with a killer hangover and manages to get to his office, where he sits in the shower for an hour. Then he lies on his conference table and hopes to die. Eventually he gets to work. He knows that Carla could tell on the phone last night that he was drunk. He has called her again, but she is not impressed. It is now nine days until the trial. Eventually he hears knocking on the front door. After fifteen minutes he finally admits the slender, good-looking young woman who has been so persistent. She is Ellen Roark, a law student at Ole Miss, bored during this summer before her final semester.

Jake asks Ellen to state her credentials, and Ellen tells a tale of family genius, growing up in her father's firm of eighteen lawyers. She has experience in writing briefs...