court. From earliest childhood her mind had been trained and her character developed by men. Her father's influence had early supplied the loss of her mother, and the influence of many men of many minds had soon been added to his.

At twenty she was a reflection of this society. At twenty-five she found herself able to judge it impartially.

CHAPTER II.

THE SON OF AN ENEMY.

THERE is a certain platitude about great men's sons which reminds us that brains, like insanity, often, if not always, skip a generation, and that the nearest heir is apt to be but a poor reflection of the great man's brilliancy. However true this may be in particular instances, it remains a scientific fact, proved by medical demonstration, that there is no law of Nature so exact in its working as the law of heredity. Irving Chipman was perhaps one of the best illustrations of this law that any physiologist could desire to prove his theories. That peculiar quality by which a rogue is said to be caught had been so highly developed in his father that, when yet a very young man, he was the best criminal lawyer in the State, and the inheritance of that quality, which had been Irving's at birth, had accumulated so much interest during

his minority that when at twenty-three he asserted his executive right to it, it was said that Irving could "out-Chipman Chipman."

His father was proud to believe that, if he himself had not accepted the seat on the bench, Irving would have been able to defeat him in any case which required "sharpened sly detection" and specious argument. Irving had taken a seat in the upper house of the State Legislature two years before he came to Tarratine in acceptance of Mr. Harcourt's invitation. He entered fully into his father's plans for his marriage with Dorothy, though, to do him justice, it must be said that he had not as much confidence in his success as a suitor as his father had for him, and was fully conscious that those highly developed arts which lead a murderer to the gallows, a counterfeiter to jail, or a bigamist to justice, are not always equally triumphant in leading a fastidious young lady into matrimony. But he was duly grateful to Nature that she had formed him in no mean mold, as he arranged his neck-tie before the long glass, preparatory to his first dinner at Elmholme, and he recognized her bounty in his six feet of muscular solidity, his broad shoulders, and large blonde head.

His linen was immaculate, his dress suit of the

latest fashion, his low glossy shoes perfect in their fitting over sleek black stockings. He thanked Nature, he thanked his tailor, he thanked the world, the flesh, and the devil, all those kindly powers that had combined to equip him so suitably for the hardest case he had ever hoped to win.

Even Dorothy found herself a little disarmed by Irving Chipman's superiority to his father.

Like many strongly sensitive women she was susceptible to exterior details of dress and manner, and she was not prepared to find upon Irving Chipman any more of the veneer of refinement than his father possessed, and the surprise threw into her manner a momentary cordiality from which he took courage. He became expansive and exuberant, talked effusively to Mr. Harcourt, and looked at Miss Harcourt through eyes which seemed to her veiled by an opaque inner lid, like that which enables the eagle to gaze at the sun.

She was glad to be relieved from the necessity of talking, and, with her hands lying idly in her lap, looked into the autumn wood-fire; but from time to time she found herself compelled by the fascination of that curious gaze to look at Irving Chipman.

"There was some opposition in Bloomfield, you know, Mr. Harcourt. It was led chiefly by that man Hardiger. I made that my objective point in my last stump. Went up there and asked Hardiger to let me stay at his house over night. There is no hotel in the place, and he sets a good table. He eyed me askance, said he'd no objections, but he'd no intention of voting for you. I assured him you had no wish to gain any man's unwilling vote, that I knew he was the leader of the opposition. All I asked was his hospitality, and the privilege of paying for it. The old fellow took me in, introduced me to his wife and daughter, who gave me some supper. I praised the pies. The daughter was very pretty. I did not neglect my opportunities, and the whole family went to the town hall to hear me speak. In the morning the old fellow said: 'Ef I'd a known you was sich a gentlemanly set o' fellows, I'd never run agin you. Now if you'd a shown me the color o' your money I'd a swamped ye. P'raps 'taint too late, as it is, to wheel about!' So, I think, Mr. Harcourt, you will get Bloomfield easily."

Irving looked again at Dorothy, and gave a satisfied chuckle, which was so exactly like his father's that all those superior differences of dress