The Argosy, Volume XLIV — page 263: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

BY THE ENEMY’S WILL. I hed there. “Feel I could live in the flat without them—but put on a reasonable figure and forthwith they change owners.” He did so, and subsequently the things became mine. Subsequently, too, the references were found satisfac- tory—as if a man would be fool enough to proffer references that wouldn’t be! Having paid a quarter’s rent in ad- vance, I had a right to rub out Stevens’ name and paint up my own. That was one of the initial things I did. A man usually avails himself of the first opportunity which comes along of seeing himself in type. ‘Hitherto I had not seen that, except on my cards, and these I shed on peo- ple on the slightest provocation. I sighed rather, that it was customary not to put up brass plates in the Inn. I was at that stage in my professional career when I owned a _ pronounced weakness for a brass plate. You see—it is as well to be candid— I was a very young lawyer. Practically, I came out of the Examination Hall in Chaneccry Lane into Gray’s Inn. Add to that the fact that | was a young man from the country, and you may find in the blend what may explain things which occurred later. As a matter of fact, | had not a client. Had I been older, the remoteness of the chance of getting together a clien- tele would have been known to me. Lawyers are increasing and multiplying so fast that the supply of clients is run- ning short—there aré not enough to go round. But, as I have said, I was a very young lawyer. .And when one is young —well, the color of the sky is prover- bial, isn’t it? Although willing to own that youth is a crime, it must be admitted that it is not a thing easily avoided. Some three or four weeks passed ere I got my chambers shipshape, and be- fore I could truthfully tell myself that I had settled down. During that time I led a sort of camping out existence, attended with the usual pleasant dis- comforts. A woman came in for an hour in the morning and a similar time in the eve- 259 ning.- Her object was performance of an operation which she described as cleaning up. I do not need to question her veracity here: her punishment will come. Such gross departure from the truth is scarcely likely to escape inquiry in the hereafter. The rest of the work I did myself. Necessarily, as the discomfort was of my own creation, I thoroughly enjoyed it—that is a man all over. I was just a plain, ordinary, eommon or garden human being: ready to raise Cain at other people’s foolishness, and revel in my own. Being monarch of all I surveyed— and the accouterments of my hobby- horse being, more or less, self provided —naturally I was a satisfied ruler. Apart from that, I considered myself exceedingly fortunate in having secured reoms in this desirable part of the Inn: Raymond Buildings is such a quiet spot; possessing the advantage of a view over the Inn Gardens—that oasis in the populous desert of London—that rooms therein are sought after as eagerly as a successful tradesman hun- gers for a baronetcy. So great is the demand that, in the ordinary way, an intending occupant finds it necessary to put his name down at the steward’s office, and take his turn in getting notiee of a vacancy when one occurs. As the quietness appealed to others, so it appealed to me; henee per- sonal exultation over possession. The front of the Buildings looks out on to Jockey’s Fields. A stranger hear- ing that name might reasonably babhle of green meadows and buttereups. As a matter of fact, the Fields is a mews, the site of stable and coach-houses: possibly a jockey has never even walked down it. London’s godfathers bear a reputa- tion for unconscious humor; the street corners bristle with their glazed- lettered jokes. Why the Raymond Buildings rooms suited me so well was hecause I had been in need of offices and chambers eombined. I had the usual provincial— modified—belief that London’s streets are paved with gold: that to come was to see and to conquer. ECOMRiNIEloOO@ SS) (GO) awa