Dan, with his ampler outlook, grudged them nothing, but the home needs were to be reckoned with in the disposition of his own time.

He had now a regular assignment to the county courts and received a salary from the "Courier." He was usually so tired at the end of his day's work that he found it difficult to settle down to study at night in the deserted law office.

The constant variety and excitement of newspaper work militated against the sober pondering of legal principles and Dan had begun to realize that, with the necessity for earning money hanging over him, his way to the bar, or to a practice if he should qualify himself, lay long and bleak before him.
Dan had heard much of Morton Bassett since his visit to Fraserville.

His conviction, dating from the Fraserville visit, that Bassett was a man of unusual character, destined to go far in any direction in which he chose to exert his energies, was proved by Bassett's growing prominence.

A session of the legislature had intervened, and the opposition press had hammered Bassett hard.