After a while he said, "I'm waiting
for you to tell me it's all a nightmare."
"Humph!" The judge continued his restless pacing. "I was sorry for
you when you came in here, and it took all my strength to tell
you; but now you don't matter at all. I was prepared to have you
go ahead against my advice, but--I'll see you damned first."
"You have damned me."
When Ellsworth saw the haggard face turned to his he ceased his
walk abruptly. "I'm all broken up, Dave," he confessed in a
gentler tone than he had used heretofore. "But you'll thank me
some day."
Law was no longer the big, strong, confident fellow who had
entered the office such a short time before. He had collapsed; he
seemed to have shrunk; he was pitifully appealing. Although there
were many things he would have said, many questions upon his
tongue, he could not voice them now, and it was with extreme
difficulty that he managed to follow the judge's words at all.
After a time he rose and shook Ellsworth's hand limply,
mechanically; then he shambled out of the office. Like a sick man,
he stumbled down the stairs and into the street. When he entered
his hotel the clerk and some of the idlers in the lobby looked at
him queerly, but he did not see them.
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