By Advice of Counsel | Page 6

the receiver and with his heart full of gentle sympathy for all
mankind walked slowly home, pausing to get some roses for Mrs.
Hogan and to buy a box for Daddy Long Legs at the Strand, for
whenever he got a new case he always made it the occasion for a
family party, and he wanted the children to benefit by passing an
evening under the sweet influence of Miss Pickford.
Now just at the moment that his employer was buying the roses Mr.
Simpkins entered the apartment of Mrs. Mathusek and informed her of
Tony's arrest and incarceration. He was very sympathetic about it, very
gentle, this dapper little man with the pale gray eyes and inquisitive,
tapirlike nose; and after the first moment of shock Mrs. Mathusek took
courage and begged the gentleman to sit down. There are always two
vultures hanging over the poor--death and the law; but of the two the
law is the lesser evil. The former is a calamity; the latter is a misfortune.
The one is final, hopeless, irretrievable; from the other there may
perhaps be an escape. She knew Tony was a good boy; was sure his

arrest was a mistake, and that when the judge heard the evidence he
would let Tony go. Life had dealt hardly with her and made her an old
woman at thirty-four, really old, not only in body but in spirit, just as in
the middle ages the rigor of existence made even kings old at thirty-five.
What do the rich know of age? The women of the poor have a day of
spring, a year or two of summer, and a lifetime of autumn and winter.
Mrs. Mathusek distrusted the law and lawyers in the abstract, but Mr.
Simpkins' appearance was so reassuring that he almost counteracted in
her mind the distress of Tony's misfortune. He was clearly a gentleman,
and she had a reverential regard for the gentry. What gentlefolk said
was to be accepted as true. In addition this particular gentleman was
learned in the law and skilled in getting unfortunate people out of
trouble. Now, though Mr. Simpkins possessed undoubtedly this latter
qualification, it was also true that he was equally skilled in getting
people into it. If he ultimately doubled their joys and halved their
sorrows he inevitably first doubled their sorrows and halved their
savings. Like the witch in Macbeth: "Double, double toil and trouble."
His aims were childishly simple: First, to find out how much money his
victim had, and then to get it.
His methods were no more complicated than his aims and had
weathered the test of generations of experience. So:
"Of course Tony must be bailed out," he said gently. "You don't want
him to spend the night in jail."
"Jail! Oh, no! How much is the bail?" cried Tony's mother.
"Only five hundred dollars." His pale gray eyes were watching her for
the slightest sign of suspicion.
"Five hundred dollars! Eoi! Eoi! It is a fortune! Where can I get five
hundred dollars?" She burst into tears. "I have saved only one hundred
and sixty!"
Mr. Simpkins pursed his lips. Then there was nothing for it! He reached
for his hat. Mrs. Mathusek wrung her hands. Couldn't the gentleman go

bail for Tony? He was such a dear, kind, good gentleman! She searched
his face hungrily. Mr. Simpkins falteringly admitted that he did not
possess five hundred dollars.
"But--" he hesitated.
"Yes!"
"But--" she echoed, seizing his sleeve and dragging him back.
Mr. Simpkins thought that they could hire somebody to go bail; no, in
that case there would be no money to pay the great lawyer whom they
must at once engage to defend her son--Mr. Hogan, one who had the
pull and called all the judges by their first names. He would not usually
go into court for less than five hundred dollars, but Mr. Simpkins said
he would explain the circumstances to him and could almost promise
Mrs. Mathusek that he would persuade him to do it this once for one
hundred and fifty. So well did he act his part that Tony's mother had to
force him to take the money, which she unsewed from inside the
ticking of her mattress. Then he conducted her to the station house to
show her how comfortable Tony really was and how much better it was
to let him stay in jail one night and make sure of his being turned out
the next afternoon by giving the money to Mr. Hogan, than to use it for
getting bail for him and leave him lawyerless and at the mercy of his
accusers. When Mrs. Mathusek saw the cell Tony was in she became
even more frightened than she had been at first. But by that time