For
one instant the beautiful, pale face of the girl-wife appeared, and then
vanished.
At the doorway of the house Orlando Guise stumbled. That was an unusual
thing to happen to him. He was too athletic to step carelessly, and yet
he stumbled and giggled. It was not a fatuous giggle, however. In it were
all kinds of strange things.
CHAPTER V
ORLANDO HAS AN ADVENTURE
Burlingame had the best practice of any lawyer in Askatoon, although his
character had its shady side. The prairie standards were not low; but
tolerance is natural where the community is ready-made; where people from
all points of the compass come together with all sorts of things behind
them; where standards have at first no organized sanction. Financially
Burlingame was honest enough, his defects being associated with those
ancient sources of misconduct, wine and women--and in his case the
morphia habit as well. It said much for his physique that, in spite of
his indulgences, he not only remained a presentable figure but a lucky
and successful lawyer.
Being something of a philosopher, the Young Doctor looked upon Burlingame
chiefly as one of those inevitable vintages from a vineyard which,
according to the favour or disfavour of Heaven, yields from the same soil
both good and bad. He had none of that Puritanism which would ruthlessly
root out the vines yielding the bad wine. To his mind that could only be
done by the axe, the rope or the bullet.
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