"I live just here. Perhaps you
will come up to my rooms, out of this Mars' racket?"
"In an hour's time I must wait on Lord George Murray. But I have till
then."
They entered a close, and climbed the stair of a tall, tall house,
dusky and old. Here, half-way up, was the lawyer's lair. He unlocked a
door and the two came, through a small vestibule, into a good-sized,
comfortable, well-furnished room. Rullock glanced at the walls.
"I was here once or twice, years ago. I remember your books. What a
number you have!"
"I recall," said Mr. Wotherspoon, "a visit that you paid me with the
now laird of Glenfernie."
The window to which they moved allowed a glimpse of the colorful
street. Mr. Wotherspoon closed it against the invading noise and the
touch of chill in the misty air. He then pushed two chairs to the
table and took from a cupboard a bottle and glasses.
"My man is gadding, with eyes like saucers--like the rest of us, like
the rest of us, Captain Rullock!" They sat down. "My profession," said
the lawyer, "can be made to be narrow and narrowing. On the other
hand, if a man has an aptitude for life, there is much about life to
be learned with a lawyer's spy-glass! A lawyer sees a variety of
happenings in a mixed world. He quite especially learns how seldom
black and white are found in anything like a pure condition.
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