CHAPTER VI.
A LAWYER'S STUBBORNNESS.
Edward Salmon was one of the brilliant and successful lawyers of New York. His office contained family secrets that would tear wide open the very vitals of society, if he but chose to speak. But he was oily and discreet, and maid, matron, and millionaire as well, knew that what went into that massive safe and into Salmon's wily brain, never came out again unless it was proper. That was the reason of his great success. Mr. Salmon was a great success. He had a wondrous practice, a splendid library, a rich and lovely home; but he had a daughter, Marie, who had seen fit, as young girls will do sometimes, to fall in love without parental consultation, and the result was that both father and daughter were very unhappy. She would not yield to his wishes, and he would not consent to the man of her choice. Now, Milton Royle, the sweet-heart of Marie, was a noble fellow, but twenty years prior to the commencement of this story, Royle's father and the lawyer had a great difficulty over a law suit, and Salmon had never forgotten or forgiven what he had always alleged, was the betrayal of Royle's father, and he had sworn that he would rather see Marie go wifeless to the grave, rather than that she should marry a man in whose veins flowed the blood of the elder Royle. In all other respects he was an indulgent parent, and was particularly tender to Marie, as the girl had lost her mother, and was
