Allegiance Read Online Free

otherwise, and now he has their stamp. Of course, a Supreme Court clerkship is a higher mark of distinction. At least in some circles.
    â€œYou told me you’d take care of me,” says Suzanne. “Let me do that for you one time.”
    â€œWhat do you mean?”
    She hesitates. “I mean, let me give something up for you. You’ll be gone for a year. But it gives you the chance to do something important. To make a contribution. I know how much that means to you.”
    â€œBut what kind of contribution is it?”
    â€œYou’re the lawyer. You tell me.” She leans closer, and for a second I think she is going to kiss me. Then her hands are on my chest, pushing me away. “Go talk to the Judge. He’s been fussing like a mother hen all day. Can’t talk about anything else.”
    I bend down and put my lips on hers. She softens, leans into me, and pulls back. “Go on,” she says.
    Judge Skinner’s library holds a chair not unlike my father’s. But he isn’t sitting. He is looking in one of his books, and it seems that even that is put on for my benefit, for as soon as he hears my step he slaps it shut and turns with eyes alight in his craggy face. “The Supreme Court,” he says, and his voice polishes the words to such luster I can almost see the glow. “It’s a real honor.”
    â€œI’m the understudy, from what I hear. The second understudy, in fact.”
    â€œNonsense. You’ll see Black tomorrow? You won’t agree with him on everything, but I expect he’ll do most of the talking. He’s from the South. Stay off the Klan.”
    â€œI should be able to do that.”
    He claps a hand on my shoulder and smiles. “The Supreme Court. I doubt any of my decisions will make it there, but if they do I hope you’ll look kindly on an old man’s work.”
    I smile myself. As a senior district judge, he still sits occasionally. “I’m sure there would be nothing to do but look,” I say. “Marvel, really. But so you think I should take this?”
    â€œOf course. It’s an opportunity few people ever have. To see the seat of power. To hold the levers. There’s no telling what you might do.”
    â€œMarvel, I expect. Or watch, anyway.” I pause. “I know it’s grand, but it almost seems irrelevant. I was thinking—”
    He cuts me off. “I know what you were thinking. To rush into the fire. I understand the feeling. If I were thirty years younger I’d want it myself. Self-sacrifice is a noble gesture. But it leaves only a footnote in life’s ledger. Suppose I had burnt myself up as a young man. You’d never have known me. Nor Suzanne. And if you do it . . . well, I put Suzanne apart for the moment. Is that what you will leave your family, a name and numbers at the bottom of a page?”
    â€œThere’s Charles.”
    â€œYour brother.” He nods. “A fine chap. Shall the world remember Charles instead of you? A solid member of the Union League, they will say. A regular at the Devon Horse Show. Those were the Harrisons. That is what you choose?”
    â€œOf course not.”
    â€œThe University has a statue of John Harrison,” the Judge says. “I see men polishing his face of an evening. It is fine and tall, but where are the Harrisons now? I mean no criticism. But look about Philadelphia. You will find their name in the rosters of clubs and cotillions, their image in illustrated journals of the popular press. No Harrison leads. No Harrison serves. You were made for more than that, and more is what is now offered you. Youthink the Court irrelevant?” His voice swells briefly, showing power and folding it under again. I know he can cast thunderbolts with that voice, for I have heard him do it, when I would cross the river from the University and walk down to the courthouse. “The man who dies young is irrelevant.