"Why, yes," Powell answered. "Isn't that enough?"
"I thought--that is, that I might have some duties. How am I to begin?"
"Why, just open the book to the first page and read that, then turn over to the second page and read that, and so on--till you get to the end."
"Your hours?" said Powell, as if he did not understand. "Oh, just suit yourself."
"Don't you make any entry--any memorandum?" he asked, still unable to separate himself from the idea that something formal, something legal, should mark the beginning of such an important epoch.
"Oh, you keep track of the date," said Powell, "and at the end of three years I'll give you a certificate. You may find that you can do most of your reading at home, but come around."
Marley looked about the office, trying to imagine himself in this new situation.
"I'd like, you know," he said, "to do something, if I could, to repay you for your trouble."
"That's all right, my boy," said Powell. Then he added as if the thought had just come to him:
"Well, that's more than I can do," said Powell, glancing at his new machine. "I've tried, but it would take a stationary engineer to operate that thing. You might help out with my letters and my pleadings now and then. And I'd like to have you around. You'd make good company."
"Well," said Marley, "I'll be here in the morning." He still clung to the idea that he was to be a part of the office, to be an identity in the local machinery of the law. As he rose to go, a young man appeared in the doorway. He was tall, and the English cap and the rough Scotch suit he wore, with the trousers rolled up over his heavy tan shoes, enabled Marley to identify him instantly as young Halliday. He was certain of this when Powell, looking up, said indifferently:
"Oh, I say, Powell," replied Halliday, ignoring a taunt that had grown familiar to him, "that Zeller case--we would like to have that go over to the fall term, if you don't mind."
Halliday was leaning against the door-post, and had drawn a short brier pipe from his pocket. Before he answered, he paused long enough to fill it with tobacco. Then he said:
"You'll have to see the governor about that--it's a case he's been looking after."
"Oh, well," said Powell, with his easy acquiescence, "all right."