I 
 
 
 
 ; 1 THAN 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 Ex Libris 
 C. K. OGDEN 
 
 THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES
 
 A LEGAL PRACTITIONER
 
 A 
 
 LEGAL PRACTITIONER 
 
 BEING CERTAIN OF MY OWN 
 EXPERIENCES 
 
 BV 
 
 CHRISTIAN TEARLE 
 
 AUTHOR OF 
 'THE VICE-CHANCELLOR'S WARD," "OLD MR. LOVELACE' 
 
 LONDON 
 GEORGE ROUTLEDGE AND SONS, LIMITED 
 
 NEW YORK: E. P. BUTTON AND CO. 
 
 1907
 
 J 1 1 6 4 
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 TOMMY MUECHISON'S HERITAGE . . . . 1 
 
 A PASSIVE RESISTER 50 
 
 A CASE OF WATER RIGHTS 141 
 
 THE CALAMITY OF CHARLES HARTRIGG . . .249 
 THE REV. PATRICK ANGUS . 329
 
 A LEGAL PRACTITIONER 
 
 TOMMY MUKCHISON'S HERITAGE 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 " I SAY ! This is devilish unlucky," grumbled old 
 Puseley, my partner, as he came shuffling into my 
 room with an open letter in his hand. "Young 
 Murchison's coming to see me to-morrow, and I 
 don't want to be here." 
 
 "Who is he?" 
 
 " He's the infant in Peters and Woodhouse, the 
 old Chancery suit I was telling you about the other 
 day." 
 
 " It's so particularly inconvenient," he went on, 
 with another irritable glance at the letter; "I've 
 promised my friend Stockley to go fishing with the 
 club to-morrow. He won't like it if I cry off." 
 
 "But why not wire and say you won't be 
 here?" 
 
 "Wouldn't it seem like neglecting business? I 
 shouldn't care to give the boy that impression." 
 
 B
 
 A Legal Practitioner 
 
 I had not made my suggestion in good faith, so, 
 with an inward smile, I let this virtuous answer 
 pass. I knew, only too well, that if there had been 
 nothing more in the wind than the day's fishing, 
 my partner would not have troubled to consult me ; 
 he would have merely left word that when the boy 
 presented himself, he was to be told that unfor- 
 tunately, Mr. Puseley had been called out of town, 
 and could not be back until the morrow. 
 
 Whether in my partner's younger days, when, 
 presumably, his eyes were not red and watery, nor 
 his hands all tremulous, he had conducted his busi- 
 ness after this fashion, I do not know. He was long 
 past his meridian when I came across him; and 
 then his ways were such that our partnership had 
 not been in existence for many days before I dis- 
 covered what a bad bargain I had made. 
 
 "I suppose you couldn't see him," he resumed. 
 " I'd make a point of being here myself if I wasn't 
 a little poorly. I feel as if I wanted a day in the 
 fresh air. I haven't felt at all the thing lately." 
 
 He said this in tones vibrating with self-pity, 
 and he followed it up by a cough and an uneasy 
 glance into my face. 
 
 I managed to keep back a smile, though his 
 plea for a day in the fresh air was enough to make 
 a cat laugh. The old gentleman and his cronies 
 of the fishing-club were a survival of a race un- 
 known to the present generation the cockney 
 
 2
 
 Tommy Murchison's Heritage 
 
 sportsmen of Cruikshank and Seymour. The 
 fishing-ground was at Ware, hard by an old-fashioned 
 inn; and unless such accounts as I had received 
 of the club's proceedings were purely malicious, the 
 only fresh air which could visit these patriarchs 
 of the angle was that which blew in upon them 
 through the parlour window. 
 
 " What's the boy coming about ? " 
 
 " He wants to be married." 
 
 "How old is he?" I demanded, in some 
 astonishment. 
 
 "His uncle that's his guardian, you know 
 says he's eighteen. I've got his letter here no, I 
 haven't; but I'll find it for you. He wrote to his 
 uncle cool as a cucumber; you never saw such a 
 letter from a boy ! Hee-hee-hee ! " 
 
 "What's he got?" 
 
 " I think it's about two hundred a year, but, of 
 course, he can't touch it till he's of age. But you 
 haven't heard the cream of the joke the girl's a 
 cashier in a tooth factory, a month or two older 
 than himself." 
 
 " What are his people ? " 
 
 "I forget what his father was. His uncle 
 Thomas that's our client, the guardian, you know ; 
 I haven't come across his other relatives he's a 
 parson. The Eeverend Thomas don't care what the 
 boy does I doubt if he's ever seen him but he 
 sent the letter on to me, and told me to put my 
 
 3
 
 A Legal Practitioner 
 
 foot on it, once for all. He knows the Court wouldn't 
 approve of it." 
 
 " And what did you do ? " 
 
 " Oh, I wrote to the young scamp, the day before 
 yesterday a pretty strong letter it was ! threaten- 
 ing to apply for an injunction against the girl, if he 
 didn't promise to give her up, and telling him what 
 would happen if the injunction was broken. The 
 letter's in the letter-book; you must have a look at 
 it. Now he's written that he's coming here to see 
 me, to-morrow. By-the-by, if anything's got to be 
 done in the suit, perhaps you'd better see to it. I 
 know you like Chancery work better than any- 
 thing." 
 
 The ancient threw this out carelessly, and with 
 the air of one, who confers a favour ; but having shot 
 his bolt, his confidence failed him, and he broke off 
 to watch my face. 
 
 Possibly a certain proverb about the last straw 
 was in his mind; for he was a singularly obtuse 
 old gentleman, even when in full command of his 
 faculties. Had he been otherwise, he would have 
 known how ready I was to relieve him, not only of 
 Peters v. Woodhouse, but of every other poor, fluttering 
 remnant of what had once been a fine practice. 
 
 "I'll see the boy," said I. "Where's he coming 
 from?" 
 
 "He's reading with a parson named Webb, just 
 outside Cambridge reading for the Church, you 
 
 4
 
 Tommy Murchison's Heritage 
 
 know. Bless my soul ! what's the name of the 
 place ? Never mind ! you'll find it on my letter. 
 Catch me writing to any one without putting his 
 address at the end ! Matter of record, you know ! 
 The young chap's going to Cambridge in a few 
 months. Don't bother the uncle if you can help 
 it. He won't care what happens, so long as there's 
 no trouble with the Court." 
 
 "I suppose you wish me to act as I think 
 best ? " 
 
 " Oh yes ! By all means ! But don't hesitate to 
 consult me if you feel in any difficulty. Two heads 
 are better than one, you know! That's what the 
 haircutter said. Hee-hee-hee ! " 
 
 The old gentleman began to edge towards the 
 door as he uttered this witticism. Now that he had 
 succeeded in his diplomacy, he was all anxiety to 
 shuffle off. 
 
 I did not mean to let him escape before I had 
 obtained some further particulars, but luck was 
 against me. I was called away for a moment, and 
 on my return I found that the bird had flown. His 
 own room was empty, and when I looked into it 
 again, two or three hours later, he was still absent. 
 " Mr. Puseley went to the City just before one, sir. 
 He couldn't say when he'd be back," was all that 
 Peacock, who in those days acted as our universal 
 clerk, could tell me. This meant that my partner 
 had betaken himself to his accustomed seat in the 
 
 5
 
 A Legal Practitioner 
 
 Cheshire Cheese, and was probably, at that moment, 
 in the enjoyment of his second or third "go of 
 rack." Gray's Inn would see nothing more of 
 him until eleven or twelve o'clock of the next day 
 but one. 
 
 6
 
 CHAPTEE II 
 
 WHEN the infant in Peters v. Woodhouse was shown 
 into my sanctum, there was something distinctly 
 bellicose in his aspect. He looked surprised and a 
 little disappointed when he saw that he had a 
 stranger to deal with. 
 
 " I thought I was to see Mr. Puseley," he said, 
 stiffly. 
 
 " My senior partner has been called out of town. 
 He has asked me to see you." 
 
 "When is he coming back?" The tone of the 
 question suggested that Mr. Oliver Hill Murchison 
 had a bone to pick with somebody, and was anxious 
 to set about it as soon as possible. His next remark 
 put the matter beyond all doubt. 
 
 " It's no good my seeing you. I've come about a 
 letter Mr. Puseley wrote me. It's a letter that I 
 must discuss with him. I'm very sore about it." 
 
 There was indignation in his tone and manner, 
 and he flushed up a little when he mentioned the 
 letter, but there was nothing bumptious or theatrical 
 about him. Nor was there any wilful discourtesy 
 towards myself. He had come to see Mr. Puseley, 
 
 7
 
 A Legal Practitioner 
 
 and he had, no doubt, prepared himself to open 
 the conversation with that gentleman in good set 
 terms. In the first flush of his disappointment at 
 being confronted with some one else, the boy had 
 expressed himself bluntly, but in such a way as to 
 make it plain to any person of ordinary intelligence 
 that he meant no harm. 
 
 "If I'd known that you were anxious to see Mr. 
 Puseley, I wouldn't have agreed to take his place," 
 said I, gravely. "The truth is, he feels he isn't 
 growing younger, and he has asked me to take over 
 your Chancery suit altogether." 
 
 "But he wrote the letter : I know his writing." 
 
 " Oh yes ! It was only yesterday he spoke to 
 me about the suit. All I know about the letter is 
 that it was written upon your guardian's instruc- 
 tions. As a matter of fact, I haven't seen it" 
 
 The truth was, I had searched for the press - 
 copy in vain. My partner, in his haste, had sent 
 the letter off uncopied, and I had made an equally 
 fruitless search for the uncle's letter and its 
 enclosure. 
 
 Oliver seemed to find matter for reflection in the 
 new aspect of things. As he stood scrutinizing me, 
 with blue eyes under a broad forehead and a mop 
 of dark hair, a well-built, well-dressed youth, who 
 looked older than his years, I felt pretty sure that, 
 burning though he was, to execute vengeance upon 
 the scribe who had so incensed him, the prospect of 
 
 8
 
 Tommy Murchison's Heritage 
 
 seeing that individual no more was not without its 
 compensations. 
 
 " Hadn't you better sit down and tell me what 
 you have to complain of," said I, dropping into my 
 chair. "Let us try to understand one another! 
 What was wrong with the letter ? " 
 
 " It was so so vulgar" he grumbled, as he took 
 a seat. " He's only a silly old ass ; but he ought to 
 know how to behave himself." 
 
 " He may have written it in a hurry," I pleaded. 
 
 " He may have written it in the Cheshire Cheese ; 
 but that doesn't make it any better," was the prompt 
 and unexpected retort. 
 
 " Written it in the Cheshire Cheese ! " I echoed, 
 staring hard at the visitor. 
 
 His eyes twinkled as they met mine, but he 
 answered nothing. 
 
 " What was the letter ? " said I, suppressing a 
 strong inclination to laugh. 
 
 "This was what happened. I fell in love with 
 a young lady. Well, I wrote to my uncle : he's my 
 guardian, though I've never seen him. I wrote and 
 told him. I wrote to him because he was my 
 guardian, and I knew he was entitled to be consulted. 
 And besides, he's my uncle as well as my guardian 
 my only uncle too. It isn't usual to go and get 
 engaged without telling your family unless you 
 happen to be ashamed of the lady." 
 
 The boy had been speaking without the least 
 9
 
 A Legal Practitioner 
 
 self-consciousness ; but his colour had risen, and as 
 he made this reservation, he looked straight at me 
 with a fire in his eye and a tightening of the lips, 
 which 'told, more eloquently than words, how eager 
 he was to break a lance in honour of his lady with 
 any one, who dared to suspect him of being ashamed 
 of her. 
 
 "I wrote to my uncle on a family matter, as a 
 gentleman to a gentleman, and the only answer I 
 get is Mr. Puseley's letter," he went on, in hot 
 anger. "It's shameful; it isn't even decent! I 
 don't mind confessing that it's wounded me very 
 much. I'm not a child to be scolded without cause ; 
 and, even if I was, why should he bring the lady 
 into it? I meant to ask him how he would have 
 liked it if she had been one of his daughters " 
 
 "But he hasn't got a daughter he hasn't any 
 children." 
 
 I slipped this in, because I was anxious to bring 
 matters down to a lower level ; and the Oh / with 
 which it was received, sounded like a somewhat 
 grudging acknowledgment that, in the circumstances, 
 an appeal to Puseley's feelings as a father might 
 possibly have missed fire a little. 
 
 "You haven't told me yet what the letter said," 
 I remarked. 
 
 "It began by saying that my uncle was much 
 distressed at hearing that I had entangled myself 
 with an individual, whose social position, apart 
 
 10
 
 Tommy Murchison's Heritage 
 
 altogether from my own age, made any suggestion 
 of marriage wholly impracticable. That was pretty 
 good! 'Entangled myself,' indeed!" The boy 
 uttered a snort of indignation as he shot this forth. 
 
 "But that was no imputation upon the young 
 lady." 
 
 " I haven't got to that. That came near the end 
 of the letter, when he said that unless the affair * the 
 affair,' he called it ! was brought to an immediate 
 end, the young person would find that her proposed 
 alliance with a ward of Court of a social position so 
 much higher than her own, would involve her in 
 consequences more serious than she dreamed of, 
 and he wound up by saying that in her interest, he 
 must ask me to warn her and her parents that if 
 there was any attempt to hold me to any foolish 
 promise, which I might have given, it would be my 
 uncle's painful duty to at once seek the intervention 
 of the Court, and that in the event of the Court's 
 order to break off all communication being disobeyed, 
 the party most to blame would find herself com- 
 mitted to prison. And, oh, I've forgotten something ! 
 He had the audacity to regret having to ask me to do 
 this, but as he didn't know the other party's address, 
 and therefore could not communicate with her direct, 
 he had no alternative. If he had written to her, I'd 
 have broken every bone in his body." 
 
 This last was sound and fury signifying nothing, 
 for Puseley was a little old man, and he was shaky 
 
 ii
 
 A Legal Practitioner 
 
 on his pins. The young athlete before me would as 
 soon have struck a child. 
 
 " We won't discuss the form of the letter," said I. 
 " Let's put that on one side. Don't forget, though, 
 that it was out of the question for your guardian 
 to sanction a marriage without the leave of the 
 Court." 
 
 "Then why couldn't Mr. Puseley say so, with- 
 out suggesting that I was the victim of some sort 
 of conspiracy ? " 
 
 I thought it advisable to dodge this question. 
 
 " Your engagement must have come as a great 
 surprise," said I. 
 
 " But I wasn't engaged not then." 
 
 " Not then ? " 
 
 "But I am now. What could I do when I got 
 such a letter, but see her, and put things on a right 
 footing ? " 
 
 " And you got engaged ? " 
 
 "Yes; and I came here to let Mr. Puseley know 
 to let him know how his letter had worked. Of 
 course, I didn't say anything to her about his 
 threats. I meant to tell him that too." 
 
 "But what will the Court say?" said I, sore 
 perplexed. 
 
 " What is there for the Court to interfere about ? 
 Mr. Puseley asked me to promise not to hold any 
 further communication with with the lady. I'll do 
 that ; I'll give my word of honour. It's only till 
 
 12
 
 Tommy Murchison's Heritage 
 
 I'm twenty-one, of course. I can do what I like 
 after that." 
 
 " And did you get engaged upon that under- 
 standing ? " 
 
 This was no business of mine, but I was 
 so surprised that the question slipped out un- 
 awares. 
 
 "She wouldn't have taken me on any other 
 terms ; even then, she was very unwilling but I 
 needn't go into that." 
 
 " You will be of age in three years," said I, after 
 a silence. 
 
 The boy nodded. "Bather less than that ; thank 
 goodness ! I was eighteen five weeks ago on the 
 fourteenth of May. It is a long time though. But 
 we'll worry through it somehow." Now that he had 
 freed his mind by setting forth his wrongs he was 
 growing more cordial. 
 
 There was something so irresistibly winning in 
 the simplicity with which he had referred to the 
 engagement and the preposterous understanding 
 accompanying it, that I felt a strong desire to make 
 things pleasant for him. It was, therefore, a relief 
 to feel that one was not called upon to say any- 
 thing disheartening just then. The promise which 
 he had given was ample for present purposes ; and 
 though there was a difficulty looming in the imme- 
 diate future, it would be time enough to consider that 
 after he had gone, and I must then try to devise
 
 A Legal Practitioner 
 
 some scheme for putting matters on a secure footing 
 without wounding him. 
 
 These thoughts passed through my mind as we 
 sat looking at one another across my table, and in 
 their train came a vague curiosity to learn something 
 of the girl, who had promised to marry him on the 
 understanding that they were to break off all com- 
 munication for three years. He had said that even 
 on these terms, she had accepted him unwillingly. 
 That " even " was the puzzle. I began to wish that 
 her swain had not pulled up so abruptly when he 
 answered the question, which I ought not to have 
 asked. "Boy and girl engagements are, at best, 
 only foolishness," whispered common sense, "and 
 he's eighteen, and has two hundred a year." I paid 
 due heed to the whisper, but, remembering the 
 "even," it was with something like a pang that 
 I trod my sentimentalities under foot. 
 
 "Are you satisfied? " asked the boy. 
 
 "I'm sure your uncle will accept your promise. 
 I dare say there will be some details to be arranged ; 
 but I can see you again after he's been consulted." 
 
 " And need there be any application to the 
 Court ? " Young Murchison asked this question with 
 a half-smile. 
 
 "I'm sure that won't be necessary," said I, 
 smiling in return. 
 
 " Was the old chap gassing when he made that 
 threat about imprisonment ? There's no reason why
 
 Tommy Murchison's Heritage 
 
 you shouldn't tell me; is there?" The indignant 
 lover of a few minutes before was all boy as he 
 said this. 
 
 "Do you think it's safe to go back to that 
 letter?" 
 
 " I should like to know." 
 
 "Well, I'm not sure of the practice; but my 
 impression is that the Court would proceed against 
 the young lady's father, not against her." 
 
 " Do you mean they'd imprison him ? " Mr. 
 Murchison put this question with such suddenness 
 and force that, for the moment, I wondered whether 
 another explosion was imminent. 
 
 " That's my impression." 
 
 " Good old Court ! " 
 
 The roar of laughter which followed was so un- 
 expected and so infectious that I laughed as loudly 
 as he. 
 
 After this outburst we sat facing one another in 
 complete amity. There is nothing like a hearty 
 laugh to bring two folks together. 
 
 "I'm afraid the poor gentleman has been doing 
 his duty," said I, fishing for information. 
 
 Mr. Murchison closed one eye. " You mean by 
 opposing our engagement ? " said he. 
 
 " Of course," was my answer ; and this provoked 
 another laugh brimful of merriment, but lacking in 
 the deep note of supreme enjoyment which had made 
 the first so irresistible. 
 
 15
 
 A Legal Practitioner 
 
 "He's not exactly a bad lot," explained the pro- 
 spective son-in-law. "He's well! he's got a touch 
 of old Puseley's complaint." 
 
 "What's that?" 
 
 Oliver's blue eyes twinkled as they scanned 'my 
 astonished face. 
 
 " Haven't you ever been to the Cheshire Cheese 
 with him ? " he asked. 
 
 "Have you?" 
 
 " He took me to lunch there, when I came here 
 about a year ago. We had some beer to begin with 
 good beer too ! and when we'd done, he had a 
 tray of gin and water." 
 
 "But surely you didn't have any," I protested, 
 much scandalized. 
 
 " No fear ! I was in training. And besides, I 
 knew I couldn't walk straight if I'd put gin on the 
 top of that beer." 
 
 I managed to hold my tongue, but young 
 Murchison saw how indignant I was, and he broke 
 into a grin. 
 
 " The best of the joke was, he wanted to have 
 another trayful, but he didn't like to, with me there. 
 So he suddenly remembered he was expecting a client 
 to come to him on important business, every minute ; 
 and then he shook hands, and said he hoped I 
 shouldn't forget to look in here when I next came to 
 town, and he was sure I should live to be a bishop. 
 That was one of his jokes, you know ! " 
 
 16
 
 Tommy Murchison's Heritage 
 
 "I'd rather we didn't talk any more about Mr. 
 Puseley," I said, with some acidity. "It's hardly 
 fair to him to tell tales out of school or to me, 
 either, seeing that I'm his partner." 
 
 " But I thought you must know all about him, or 
 I wouldn't have said a word." 
 
 " Let's drop the subject, and go and have some 
 lunch," said I. 
 
 " Thanks awfully ! We ought to go to a coffee- 
 tavern this time," was the answer. 
 
 We did not go to a coffee-tavern, but to my usual 
 lunching-place, and before the meal was over we 
 were on the best of terms. This was very gratifying, 
 for I liked the boy and was interested in him. My 
 vanity, too, was tickled; it was no small thing for 
 one who was fifteen years his senior to have gained 
 his confidence so soon. 
 
 " I say," he began confidentially, when we were 
 each indulging in a cigarette, "there's something 
 I want you to do for me ! I've made up my mind 
 not to go into the Church. Can you put things 
 right with my uncle ? " 
 
 " Why have you changed your mind ? " 
 
 The question was one which I was obliged to 
 put, and I asked it as a matter of course. But he 
 seemed so doubtful as to his answer that I felt sure 
 there must be scruples in the background, too per- 
 sonal in their nature to be put forward without 
 encouragement. 
 
 17 o
 
 A Legal Practitioner 
 
 " We needn't go into details," said I, by way of 
 giving him a lead; "but I must put some reason 
 before your uncle. Perhaps you feel a difficulty 
 about the Articles." 
 
 The answer came readily enough this time. 
 
 "The Articles! Oh no, I don't feel any diffi- 
 culty about them. Why should I ? I don't exactly 
 remember what they are; but if other people can 
 swallow them, I suppose I could." 
 
 " Then what is the difficulty ? " 
 
 "It isn't the sort of thing you're thinking of; 
 it's a personal objection. If a man's a clergyman, 
 he's cut off from all his fellow-creatures, except old 
 tabbies male and female tabbies, I mean. I couldn't 
 stand that. I don't mind your laughing," he pro- 
 tested merrily ; " but I'll just ask you one question : 
 Were you ever out anywhere where there was a 
 clergyman, when you didn't find him a wet blanket ? 
 Did any one talk naturally ? I don't mean twaddle 
 about the weather and things in the papers did 
 any one talk talk ? " 
 
 " It's so long since I met a clergyman in general 
 company that I really can't remember what effect 
 he had on our conversation; no doubt he raised it 
 to a higher level," said I. 
 
 My guest received this evasion with undisguised 
 contempt. 
 
 "You know what I mean," he said, with half- 
 closed eyes and two emphatic nods of his head. 
 
 18
 
 Tommy Murchison's Heritage 
 
 "But if you don't want to be a clergyman, why 
 on earth did you decide to enter the Church ? " 
 
 " Well, Mr. Puseley seemed to think I ought to." 
 
 This came forth so demurely and was followed 
 oy such a chuckle that I knew the young villain had 
 been lying in wait for the question. 
 
 "It was at the Cheshire Cheese," he explained. 
 " Mr. Puseley kept on saying it would be a pity if 
 my uncle's living went out of the family; and 
 really, just then, I felt inclined to agree to any- 
 thing. I didn't like to cry off when I'd thought 
 over what I'd done, so I decided to give the plan 
 a trial. I didn't mean to say anything until I 
 finished my six months with Webb ; but that's out 
 of the question after what's happened. You under- 
 stand ; don't you ? " 
 
 I had a glimmering of his meaning, but I pre- 
 ferred to hear him state it, before I said anything. 
 
 "Don't you see I must get away from the 
 place a good way off? I couldn't have given that 
 promise, if I was going to be anywhere near. I 
 might go to Oxford, if I was keen on the Church ; 
 but I'm not. I must have something to do that I 
 can take an interest in, or what on earth will 
 become of me for the next three years? I've no 
 turn for the classics or theology: I simply loathe 
 exegesis. I want to be a mining engineer." 
 
 " Sagacious youth ! " I exclaimed in my delight. 
 " You've taken quite a weight off my mind." 
 
 19
 
 A Legal Practitioner 
 
 " I thought you looked a bit uncomfortable when 
 you said we could arrange details when you saw me 
 again," said he. "I had a sort of notion of what 
 was in your mind. Oh no! I couldn't possibly 
 stay in the place, or near it. I talked it over with 
 Webb, last night. He's a sensible chap, though 
 he is a clergyman, and he agreed with me. I bade 
 him good-bye this morning. I'm going to stay with 
 a friend at Bude. Webb knows him. I've left my 
 luggage at Paddington." 
 
 "And you'd arranged all this with the young 
 lady ? " For the second time that day, my astonish- 
 ment was carrying me out of bounds. 
 
 "Oh yes; we had to arrange it all at once. I 
 should like to tell you about her " he went on, wist- 
 fully; "but I suppose I'd better not." 
 
 " I should dearly like to hear it, but, perhaps 
 I'd better know no more than you've told me 
 already," I answered, not a little moved. 
 
 We meditated in silence after this, and as I 
 weighed the pros and cons of the imbroglio, common- 
 sense and sentiment trembled in the balance. 
 
 There must and would be an end of the affair. 
 That, of course, was inevitable; but what a pity 
 it seemed! Even common-sense might go to this 
 length; for who could deny that in the abstract, 
 young love was a pretty thing, and what man, 
 whose blood was warm within, could have listened 
 to the bald story, which had told so little and
 
 Tommy Murchison's Heritage 
 
 implied so much, without a touch of sympathy, 
 and a lurking hope that, somehow or other, the 
 boy's love-making might have a happy issue, 
 after all. 
 
 The scales were still trembling as I reasoned thus ; 
 but when I remembered the promise, and the safe- 
 guards, which the two children had devised for its 
 performance, romance carried the day and common- 
 sense kicked the beam. And no wonder! Who 
 could recall these things in all their freshness, and 
 hold the balance even? "It's a shame to part 
 'em," thought I. 
 
 " Moley Hoses ! " broke in the subject of my 
 meditations as he sprang up, watch in hand. "I 
 ought to be off. But don't you come ! If you're 
 expecting a client here, I won't tell tales out of 
 school this time." 
 
 21
 
 CHAPTEE III 
 
 THE Kev. Thomas Murchison raised no objection to 
 the proposed change in his nephew's calling, and the 
 Court's sanction was obtained in due course. When 
 the boy left Bude, it was to begin his new training in 
 Newcastle. He called at Gray's Inn on his way 
 through town, and we met upon the pleasant footing 
 on which we had parted, but not a word was said 
 upon the matter which had made us acquainted. He 
 seemed all eagerness to enter upon his new walk of 
 life, and there was nothing about him to suggest the 
 lovelorn swain. 
 
 As the weeks slipped by, it was not in the nature 
 of things that I should give much thought to him or 
 his concerns, though, now and then, I wondered how 
 the lovers were bearing their separation. I had 
 many other things to occupy my mind, for the task 
 of galvanizing back into life the moribund practice, 
 in which I had sunk all my small capital, was an 
 exacting one. With nobody to help me, but the 
 always-faithful Peacock and a scrap of a boy, and 
 hampered at every turn by my partner's deficiencies, 
 I was beginning to lose heart, and to wonder whether 
 
 22
 
 Tommy Murchison's Heritage 
 
 I had better not give up the struggle and return to 
 my country clerkship ; when almost without warning, 
 the event so often longed for, but so little expected, 
 came to pass : Puseley was removed from the scene. 
 
 Late one afternoon I received intelligence that he 
 had stumbled upon the staircase of his favourite 
 tavern, and would have to lie up for a few days with 
 a bruised knee, and I heard no more of him until, a 
 week or so later, a letter reached me from his doctor. 
 This said that inflammation of a somewhat trouble- 
 some character had shown itself, and that the old 
 gentleman was fretting so grievously over the office 
 business that some effort ought to be made to pacify 
 him. Marvelling greatly, and growling not a little, 
 I at once betook myself to his residence in the Seven 
 Sisters Eoad. This proved to be a two-storied little 
 house, set back from the pavement, and having 
 on one side a dilapidated stable and coach-house. 
 "When Puseley had taken the place, some thirty years 
 before, I dare say it was a neat villa, standing in a 
 district, that was residential and still countrified ; but 
 when I saw it, it formed part of a loud commercial 
 thoroughfare, with a dancing school on one side, and 
 a so-called medical hall on the other. 
 
 I need not enter into details to justify the impres- 
 sion which I formed of my partner's home life. It 
 will be enough to say that when the door had closed 
 behind me, and I began to think over all that I had 
 seen, or guessed, inside, I wondered, with something 
 
 23
 
 A Legal Practitioner 
 
 like a shudder, whether my own celibate existence 
 would be called upon to face its end among surround- 
 ings so unspeakably melancholy as his. 
 
 Though Puseley was nearly seventy, I had gone to 
 him expecting nothing serious ; but the moment that 
 I took his hand and looked down at his face upon the 
 pillow, I knew that our partnership was about to be 
 dissolved. It was easy enough after this, to bear 
 with seeming deference his long-hoarded abuse of all 
 that I had done, or tried to do, to make the business 
 prosper. As matters stood with him, it was only 
 common humanity to let the stream of his invective 
 run dry, and then do one's best to make him think 
 that he should have his own way for the future. 
 
 After a while his peevishness wore off, and, 
 thanks to a well-timed reference to the fishing-club, 
 I had the satisfaction to see him brighten up, and to 
 hear him relate the favourite story of his capture of a 
 gigantic pike. He told it much in his usual way; 
 not forgetting to impress upon me when the end was 
 in sight, that a pike should always be plain boiled, 
 and eaten cold with a little anchovy. It would have 
 been well for me if I had taken my departure before 
 the afterglow of this delightful anecdote had died 
 away. But I let the fortunate moment slip by, 
 and before I could make a move, a conflict on the 
 subject of his medicine had sprung up between him 
 and his housekeeper. The woman was so helpless 
 that I felt bound to support her, and in the end, the 
 
 24
 
 Tommy Murchison's Heritage 
 
 patient gave way. But all the old irritation and 
 peevishness had come back, and for the time being, 
 the absent doctor was the subject of it. Knowing 
 what I did of my partner's way of life, it tried one 
 sorely to be called upon to parry, over and over 
 again, the oft-repeated complaint that to attempt to 
 set a man upon his legs without stimulants was new- 
 fangled nonsense; and when at length anger and 
 reviling gave way to entreaty, and on this followed a 
 burst of senile tears, the strain was more than I 
 could bear. Six days after this all was over. 
 
 The third week of December was running out 
 when we buried him in Finchley cemetery. Strange 
 to say, Oliver Murchison stood with me at the grave- 
 side. He had looked in at Gray's Inn the day before, 
 to wish me a Merry Christmas, and had been much 
 interested to hear of his late enemy's decease. The 
 boy was staying in town for the holidays, as a guest 
 of some cousins on his mother's side. On hearing 
 that I had declined a place in one of the mourning 
 coaches, and that it was my intention to take the 
 train to Highgate and walk on to Finchley, he had 
 asked leave to go with me. 
 
 It was a relief to pass out of the cemetery gates, 
 and to get back into the open road. In some vague 
 way I felt glad of the boy's companionship, though 
 we tramped along without exchanging a word. I 
 could think of nothing but the desolate scene at the 
 grave ; for every detail of it seemed to stand out 
 
 25
 
 A Legal Practitioner 
 
 clear and sharp before me. Five mourners had 
 followed the hearse : three old cronies of the deceased 
 perhaps the last survivors of the fishing-club his 
 housekeeper, and a harmless, necessary drudge, her 
 subordinate. There they stood, listening with bowed 
 heads while the clergyman read the prayers, and 
 under his lee crouched the sexton, clay-coloured from 
 head to heel. And, as part of the same picture, and 
 yet as something by itself, I also had before me the 
 anxious, diffident face of one of the old cronies, just 
 as I had seen it, not ten minutes before, when he 
 drew me aside, and, with one hand still upon my 
 arm, and his glance half-turned in the direction of 
 the housekeeper, he whispered a hope that between 
 us all, we should be able to do something for her, 
 and he added, in a still shyer whisper, that she had 
 looked after poor Puseley for five and twenty years ; 
 of course, it was most regrettable, but she hadn't 
 made a penny out of him. 
 
 " I say ! " began young Murchison ; and then 
 checked himself, as if doubtful whether I should care 
 to have my meditations interrupted. 
 
 "Yes," I answered, not sorry to give them the 
 go-by. 
 
 " Didn't it strike you, when we were at the grave, 
 that those three old gentlemen were rather like one 
 another and something like Mr. Puseley ? " 
 
 The fact had struck me very forcibly at the time, 
 and I had been pondering over it as we tramped 
 
 26
 
 Tommy Murchison's Heritage 
 
 homeward. Nevertheless, I was surprised to learn 
 that it had been visible to a lad of eighteen. The 
 resemblance was no mere physical similarity. It 
 was the hall-mark of a type ; the brand set by Time 
 upon old men run to seed. 
 
 " They all seemed very sorry," he went on. 
 
 " They were burying an old friend." 
 
 "Oh yes; but was it all that? They were so 
 ancient, I was wondering whether they were saying 
 to themselves, ' Who goes next ? ' " 
 
 " But when old people say that, don't they always 
 say it out loud ? " I asked. 
 
 Oliver, in his innocence, received the morsel of 
 wisdom as a mere joke, but as such he appreciated it. 
 
 "And that wouldn't made them sad," he said, 
 laughing. 
 
 " I suppose you're always going to funerals," he 
 remarked, after we had been tramping on without 
 discourse, for another half-mile. 
 
 This suggested a clientele of such enormous 
 magnitude that I laughed. 
 
 "But you must have been to a good many," 
 he urged. 
 
 " Perhaps, a dozen more or less." 
 
 "And did you ever go to one where there were 
 no relatives ? " 
 
 " N-o ! But Mr. Puseley didn't seem to have 
 any." 
 
 " Is that possible ?" 
 
 27
 
 A Legal Practitioner 
 
 " The housekeeper knew of none, and when my 
 clerk, Peacock, hunted up these old friends, they 
 could tell him nothing. But, all the same, I think 
 he must have had relations, and fallen out of touch 
 with them, years ago." 
 
 "And he died without any of them knowing. 
 How horrible!" 
 
 There was no gainsaying the substantial justice 
 of this verdict, and as I pondered over it, many of 
 the thoughts which had been passing through my 
 mind during the last few days, came back to me. 
 
 " We ought to take it as a warning," said I, 
 half-unconsciously putting some of them into words. 
 "A man ought to keep a close watch upon himself, 
 even when he's young. If he doesn't, he'll drift 
 and drift till he's out of touch with everything 
 that's good for him, and ten to one he'll lose 
 nearly everything that's good in Jhim. It's a risk 
 we all run if we don't marry." 
 
 "And do you think that all bachelors drift and 
 drift like that?" 
 
 " Bless me ! No ! " I said this with none the 
 less emphasis or conviction, because I had put 
 the question to myself, days ago, in the Seven 
 Sisters Road, and had, then and there, proceeded to 
 fortify my answer with a battery of good resolutions. 
 " I only said one must take warning," I explained. 
 
 " But you think Mr. Puseley would have been 
 happier, if he'd married when he was young ? " 
 
 28
 
 Tommy Murchison's Heritage 
 
 Oliver put this to me with the air of a disciple, 
 timidly anxious to receive instruction from lips that 
 were well qualified to impart it. 
 
 "I'm sure of it," I asserted, a little surprised 
 at his extraordinary deference, but hugging it to 
 my bosom, all the same. "He would have been 
 a different man altogether." 
 
 "And you think there always is a great risk, 
 if a man's a bachelor ? " 
 
 " I can't deny it." 
 
 " Oh-H o ! " remarked the disciple, with a 
 
 rising intonation. 
 
 This brought me to forthwith, and the humour 
 of the situation was irresistible. I had been ser- 
 monizing on the dangers of celibacy to the infant 
 in Peters and Woodhouse. 
 
 It was a little unfortunate that the two mourn- 
 ing coaches and the hearse should have happened 
 to trot by us just at this moment, for our merri- 
 ment was somewhat unrestrained. At first blush, 
 it was also a little mysterious ; seeing that a trot 
 is faster than a walk, and we were nearly two 
 miles distant from the cemetery. But the expla- 
 nation was not far to seek; and as Mr. Murchison 
 very justly observed a few minutes later, when we 
 were eating bread and cheese in the Woodman, 
 there really, was nothing undignified in taking 
 necessary refreshment at any time; even after a 
 funeral. 
 
 29
 
 CHAPTEE IV 
 
 I FELL to work with renewed hope as soon as I was 
 free of the blight of Puseley's co-partnership, but 
 for the next few years my course was anything but 
 a path of roses. I shiver when I think of the risks 
 which I had to take in those days. If a client came 
 to me with a case full of difficulties, I had to grapple 
 with it, then and there, as best I could. I dared 
 not let him think that there was anything in the 
 whole legend of the law, which was doubtful or 
 obscure to me. Nowadays, my position is an estab- 
 lished one such as it is ! and I can plead ignorance, 
 and insist upon counsel being consulted; but in 
 years gone by, when I was fighting for a livelihood, 
 I had to make up my mind on the spur of the 
 moment, and perhaps draw and copy a writ with 
 my own hand, and then hurry down to the Courts 
 to issue it. If I did not have to serve it, I thought 
 myself lucky. 
 
 Time went quickly with me while that struggle 
 was in progress ; and Puseley's death seemed but a 
 thing of yesterday, when one morning early in June, 
 Peacock came to tell me that Mr. Murchison was in 
 
 30
 
 Tommy Murchison's Heritage 
 
 the outer office. It was not Oliver's first visit since 
 the funeral ; we had met pretty often both at 
 Gray's Inn, and at the modest lodgings, which I 
 then occupied in Guildford Street. In those days 
 I did not give dinners ; and, to tell truth, my 
 usual evening meal was a high tea of no very lofty 
 character. Oliver had shared this banquet with me 
 on two or three occasions, but in the long talks 
 afterwards, never a word had been said about his 
 engagement. 
 
 " Hasn't Mr. Murchison come of age, sir ? " asked 
 my henchman, who knew something about Peters 
 and Woodhouse. 
 
 " Nonsense ! " I began ; but, as I spoke, a date or 
 two came into my mind, and I knew that Peacock 
 was right. " Yes ! he came of age three weeks ago. 
 Good heavens, how time flies ! " 
 
 "I ought to have written to congratulate you, 
 Murchison," I remarked, as we shook hands. 
 
 " How on earth did you know ? " he asked, after 
 a pause of blank astonishment. 
 
 " Well, I remembered that you were eighteen in 
 the May before Puseley died, and that made you 
 twenty-one last month." 
 
 " And you guessed oh, I understand now ! 
 You're congratulating me on having come of age." 
 Oliver stopped to laugh. " I thought you were con- 
 gratulating me on being married," he said. 
 
 " Married ? " 
 
 31
 
 A Legal Practitioner 
 
 " Yes ; I was married on the fourteenth of last 
 month." 
 
 " The very day you came of age ! " 
 
 Benedick nodded. It did one good to see how 
 happy he was. 
 
 "You monster of duplicity," I exclaimed, and 
 then I laughed till I could laugh no more. 
 
 " So you didn't think it would come off," was his 
 triumphant comment. 
 
 " I'm not quite sure about that your little joke 
 after Puseley's funeral rather shook me but I 
 certainly didn't think it would come off so soon." 
 
 "We were to meet on my twenty-first birthday. 
 We'd arranged to meet at twelve o'clock on the steps 
 of St. Paul's." 
 
 "You arranged that three years ago, and you 
 really did not see or hear anything of one another 
 in the mean time ? " 
 
 Oliver nodded again. "And we met at the 
 bottom of the steps just as the clock was striking. 
 She came round from the north and I came from the 
 south. We weren't to go to the steps till the clock 
 began to strike." 
 
 " But a hundred things might have happened to 
 prevent it," I gasped. "It makes my head swim to 
 think of what the odds were." 
 
 " I didn't feel the slightest doubt that we should 
 meet no more did she," said the bridegroom, with 
 calm superiority. 
 
 32
 
 Tommy Murchison's Heritage 
 
 "It wasn't quite so chancey as you think," he 
 went on. " If anything had happened to either of 
 us, Webb would have told the other. One knew that 
 from the beginning ; and, as a matter of fact, one got 
 a scrap of news sometimes." 
 
 "Webb! Who's Webb?" 
 
 " The parson I was reading with when I first 
 came here. She was in his parish, you see." 
 
 " I remember ; and, now I come to think of it, you 
 told him all about the engagement. And did you 
 walk straight into the cathedral and get married ? " 
 
 " No ; we walked to St. George's, Bloomsbury. 
 We took care to give this old show of yours a wide 
 berth I'd been keeping my weather eye open for a 
 fortnight : I didn't want to run against you, before it 
 was all over. We went along the Strand and up 
 DruryLane. I'd left the licence with the clerk and 
 arranged everything, the day before." 
 
 "But how did you get the licence? I thought 
 you had to swear that you were of age." 
 
 " So you do ; but I knew you could get the 
 licence while you waited I saw that in Whitaker, 
 and I inquired at the place beforehand, to make 
 sure so I applied for it the day before my birthday. 
 I knew I was legally of age on that day : you put me 
 up to that. Don't you remember telling me the 
 story of the elder twin who died ? Well, that was 
 when you mentioned it. You didn't know I was 
 bottling it up for future use. At one time I thought 
 
 33 D
 
 A Legal Practitioner 
 
 I'd try and get a letter to her on the morning of the 
 fourteenth, but I decided I wouldn't. It seemed a 
 pity, somehow." 
 
 " How do you get a marriage licence ? " I asked. 
 " You go to the Faculty Office. It's just south of 
 St. Paul's : it's an office very much like yours. (Here 
 he looked round the panelled walls of my room, and I 
 fancied that he sniffed a little.) They fill up some 
 forms, and then you have to swear an affidavit. They 
 take you out to some place round the corner I don't 
 exactly know where. It's a tiny place a regular little 
 hutch! and there's a clergyman there doing no- 
 thing, you know, but sit there like a spider waiting 
 for flies. He tells you that you're swearing it's your 
 name and handwriting, and that it's all true. I went 
 wrong, for I said Amen, instead of kissing the book. 
 It sounded like a prayer, you know ; he intoned it." 
 
 " That must have been very impressive," said I, 
 recalling the familiar words, " especially in a hutch ! 
 And was that all ? " 
 
 "They give you the licence as soon as you get 
 back to the place." 
 
 " Doesn't some one have to give the lady away ? " 
 " The clerk did that ; and he and a friend of his 
 a policeman off duty signed the register as wit- 
 nesses Oliver Hill Murchison, bachelor, and Ada 
 Milicent Craddock, spinster. By-the-by, when the 
 clerk asked what my father-in-law was, I said he 
 was a widower, and they all laughed. That was 
 
 34
 
 Tommy Murchison's Heritage 
 
 horribly unlucky, for she's so sensitive about him. 
 It ended in their putting him down as a gentleman. 
 That was because I said he didn't do anything." 
 
 " And where is your wife now ? " 
 
 " She's walking up and down between your door- 
 way and the Town Hall. I couldn't get her to come 
 up and beard you in your den. Let's fetch her ; I 
 want you to make my will before we go away." 
 
 We came upon her unawares as we passed into 
 Verulam Buildings, a small, slight figure in a brown 
 study. She was gazing absently upon the gardens ; 
 and as she turned at the sound of our footsteps, 
 I saw that her eyes were very gentle and that her 
 face was as innocent as a child's. 
 
 She was so shy when I took her hand and spoke 
 a word or two of felicitation, that Oliver promptly 
 tucked her under his arm, and he made conversation 
 with me until we were back in my room. 
 
 While the will-making was in progress, I was 
 able to study her face, unobserved. It had none of 
 the red-and-white prettiness which one associates with 
 a lad's love, and there was character in it, for all its 
 childlike simplicity. She was at her ease, now that 
 the introduction was over and she was free to efface 
 herself. Shy, quiet happiness was in her eyes and on 
 her lips, as she sat watching her husband ; but as I 
 looked at her, a conviction stole upon me that, apart 
 from him, there had been little happiness in her life. 
 I wondered whether her father was responsible for 
 
 35
 
 A Legal Practitioner 
 
 this ? " She's so sensitive about him," had been 
 Oliver's words that morning. I had them in mind, and 
 I remembered what he had said three years before. 
 
 The young couple had to undergo Peacock's con- 
 gratulations when I called him in to act as the 
 second witness. My plump henchman knew what 
 had happened, and so exuberant was his delight that 
 to leave the room without giving expression to it 
 was a thing wholly impossible. There are a good 
 many people whom a marriage affects in this way. 
 
 Mrs. Oliver escaped with a whispered, " Wish 
 you happiness, madam," accompanied by a broad 
 smile, but on Oliver, himself, Peacock had no mercy. 
 I was conscious, as I sat completing the draft will, that 
 the unfortunate bridegroom had been penned into 
 a corner, and was receiving congratulations in brim- 
 ming measure. I caught the words, "Married at 
 twenty, myself, sir ; never regretted it ; only sorry 
 I left it so late." When I looked up, Oliver, blush- 
 ing and overborne, but not a little tickled with his 
 tormentor's fervour, was wringing him by the hand, 
 and the girl was watching them with an amused smile. 
 
 " We're going to Newcastle," said Oliver, later on ; 
 " I must put in a good long spell there yet. Perhaps 
 we're going to look up Uncle Thomas by the way," 
 he added; and he winked in order that I might 
 know that this was a joke. 
 
 " We really are going to see Mr. and Mrs. Webb," 
 said his lady, shyly.
 
 Tommy Murchison's Heritage 
 
 " Oh yes. Webb's no end of a good chap ; and 
 Mrs. Webb, her price is above rubies." 
 
 " This is the first I've heard of her," said I, 
 addressing Mrs. Oliver. 
 
 She was still shy, but after a moment's hesita- 
 tion she spoke out. 
 
 " Oliver didn't know how kind Mrs. Webb had 
 been," she said, blushing. "She came to see me, 
 and when I told her how young I was when I left 
 school, and asked her to advise me, she didn't rest 
 until she found a way of having me taught. And she 
 made a friend of me ; I used to go to the vicarage two 
 evenings a week. And Mr. Webb was quite as kind 
 as she was." 
 
 "He used to read Jeremy Taylor to them," 
 said Monsieur, solemnly. 
 
 " Oh, Oliver ! He only read that once. It was 
 Shakespeare he used to read, and that was only for a 
 little while. Mrs. Webb was at work with me all the 
 rest of the time." 
 
 " All's well with Oliver ! " thought I, touched by 
 her generous glow. This had flashed through my 
 mind when I first saw her, and now I felt sure 
 of it. 
 
 "And Mrs. Webb did that for nearly three 
 years," explained the scoffer, as if anxious to make 
 amends. 
 
 I was left to attend to my business soon after 
 this, but we all met again when the day's work was 
 
 37
 
 A Legal Practitioner 
 
 done. The testator had extorted a pledge that I 
 would dine with the pair, and had asked me to select 
 the restaurant. I chose one in Soho; an Italian 
 place where the cookery was good and the charges 
 moderate. I thought that the foreign company 
 would help to amuse the bride. 
 
 "Isn't it stupendous, Milly?" whispered Oliver, 
 playfully, soon after we were seated. The country 
 mouse was gazing ahout her with a round-eyed 
 wonder, delightful to behold. 
 
 Only once was there a cloud upon her face. 
 This was when Oliver rose to the greatness of the 
 occasion, and ordered a bottle of champagne. Just 
 at the moment she was scanning the carte, and 
 cudgelling her brains over it ; but no sooner was the 
 order given than her eyes filled with terror, and, quick 
 as lightning, they sought her husband's face. He 
 knew nothing of this, for his head was turned away ; 
 but the mere sight of him seemed to reassure her, 
 and the next instant she had gone back to the carte, 
 with moist eyes and a happy little pout "But it's 
 Oliver," said the pout, in mockery of her own alarms. 
 
 Whatever associations the calling for the wine 
 may have aroused, they vexed her no more that 
 evening. She did not take a share in it, but ehe 
 watched Oliver drink it with an enjoyment keener 
 than his own ; and when in a frenzy of connoisseur- 
 ship he smacked his lips, and praised it to the skies, 
 there were no reservations in her smile. 
 
 38
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 OLIVER and I met several times in the course of the 
 two years which followed his marriage, but when I 
 next saw Milly, she was a proud young mother a 
 hackneyed phrase, that seemed quite beautiful when 
 one looked on her with Tommy in her arms. 
 
 The three had come to town to settle; for the 
 term of pupilage was at an end, and Oliver had 
 obtained an appointment in the office of the great Sir 
 Angus in Victoria Street. They were staying with 
 the London cousins, and everybody was busy house- 
 hunting on their behalf. 
 
 The cousins were three spinsters, all on the sunny 
 side of forty, who had petted Oliver since his baby- 
 hood. They had made friends with Milly just after 
 the marriage, and from time to time one or another 
 of them had stayed in the Newcastle lodgings. There 
 were gay times in the Miss Peverills 5 home while the 
 house-hunt was in progress, and not a little baby- 
 worship. I could take a hand in this game when 
 occasion demanded, for I had been on easy terms 
 with my sister's children from their cradles. 
 
 The house was found at last : a prosaic but 
 39
 
 A Legal Practitioner 
 
 commodious tenement upon an ancient by-way, three 
 miles long, which tradition said had been a bridle- 
 track through the great forest of Middlesex, and which, 
 widened to a modern thoroughfare, still wavered in 
 its old course from the top of Highgate Hill to 
 the site of a prehistoric battle, hard by the river 
 Fleet. 
 
 There were many little gatherings in this house 
 during the next three years, and much simple 
 hospitality : cordial and pleasant at the time ; quite 
 impossibly happy when looked back upon. I met the 
 Webbs pretty often round Oliver's mahogany, and 
 once it was my ill-fortune to encounter Uncle Thomas ; 
 a selfish old recluse, whose manners, as his nephew 
 remarked, were barely civilized, and whose one re- 
 deeming feature was his fondness for Milly and the 
 boy, his godson. 
 
 Many memories of the fun and banter, that used 
 to circulate round that board come back to me, but 
 I will set down only one of them. Webb was a 
 little like Sydney Smith in appearance, and not 
 a little like that divine in his table talk. On one 
 occasion, when he had been the life and soul of 
 the company, I ventured to lay before him Oliver's 
 contention, that a parson acted as a wet blanket 
 wherever he went. 
 
 " Ha-ha, I'm responsible for that ! Mind you, 
 I didn't say every parson ; but I put the notion into 
 his head. Didn't I, Oliver?" 
 
 40
 
 Tommy Murchison's Heritage 
 
 Our host considered for a moment. " Yes, sir, 
 I suppose I must have got it from listening to what 
 you said," was his answer. 
 
 But it was not at the little dinners that my 
 happiest hours were spent. The Sunday afternoons 
 when I was the only visitor, are the times that I 
 recall with the most poignant fondness ; the cosy 
 chats with man and wife in the front attic, which was 
 Oliver's sanctum, and the noisy teas in the nursery 
 on the floor below. The house had a grand view on 
 either side j for the attic looked over a murky wilder- 
 ness of slate roofs, with land-marks standing out here 
 and there, and, far away, the dome of St. Paul's; 
 while, from the nursery windows, one could see a 
 chain of ponds and the flagstaff on Hampstead Heath. 
 
 Tommy and I were intimate from the very early 
 days, when he found his chief delight in " making 
 bang-bang " on the tray of his chair, down to the time 
 when the third of these happy years was running 
 out, and over his picture-book he would expound to 
 me the history of Noah's Ark, while, in the back- 
 ground, Oliver, the geologist, sat smoking with an air 
 of grave abstraction and with one eye shut. 
 
 In the second summer of Tommy's pilgrimage his 
 grandfather died. Oliver had been right when he 
 said that the man was not exactly a bad lot, but 
 candour compels me to say that he was so near the 
 border line that the world was undoubtedly the whole- 
 somer for his disappearance. In a letter announcing
 
 A Legal Practitioner 
 
 the domestic bereavement, Oliver, who had always 
 taken a comic view of old Craddock's delinquencies, 
 professed to find in him a certain resemblance to the 
 Thane of Cawdor; not because the deceased was a 
 gentleman in whom any responsible being could build 
 an absolute trust, but because nothing in his life 
 became him like the leaving of it. This eulogium 
 was true in a sense ; for the departed, whose state of 
 health had threatened a gradual, and correspondingly 
 expensive, process of decay, had died suddenly, without 
 giving trouble to any one. 
 
 When the old man died, Oliver and his small 
 household were established in a cottage at the sea- 
 side. To this cottage there were many visitors 
 cousins and others during the June and July of 
 the tenancy. I used to run down for the week 
 ends, but my quarters were at a neighbouring 
 tavern. By this time I was beginning to feel my 
 feet in Gray's Inn. The days of grinding economy 
 were over, and I thought it unfair to my friends, 
 to put an unnecessary strain upon the resources 
 of their temporary home. 
 
 The mantelpiece of the sitting-room was a 
 high, old-fashioned affair, with a quilted valance 
 hanging from it, and the pillar on each side was 
 adorned with picture tiles of a faint blue. One of 
 these represented an aged and very emaciated 
 couple, taking a last farewell of their descendants. 
 The venerable pair were stretched recumbent upon 
 
 42
 
 Tommy Murchison's Heritage 
 
 a four-post bedstead, their chins resting upon their 
 folded hands, while round them knelt several younger 
 figures in attitudes of intense dejection. 
 
 It was on my first visit after the funeral that 
 Tommy drew my attention to this work of art. He 
 had from the beginning been attracted by its intrinsic 
 beauty, and just then it bulked very large upon 
 his horizon, because that afternoon he had dis- 
 covered in the aged couple a strong likeness to 
 his own parents. 
 
 When Oliver came in, he was at once conducted 
 to the fireplace, to pay his meed of admiration to 
 the child's discovery. This done, Tommy toddled 
 away; but his father lingered behind to pore over 
 certain words in faint German script, which were 
 written upon a scroll over the bedstead. At last, 
 after several failures he got at the substance 
 
 " A good name is a goodly heritage." 
 
 " I suppose that means the children are getting 
 nothing else," said he. 
 
 Milly made no comment at the time ; but when, 
 later on, I chanced to refer to the funeral, I saw 
 her eyes wander towards the fireplace, and pre- 
 sently she crossed over to it. From the other end 
 of the long, dark room, Oliver and I watched her 
 as she stood there in her black dress. The child 
 was in her arms, half asleep; and just before she 
 turned away, we saw her kiss him and whisper 
 something in his ear. I knew intuitively that it 
 
 43
 
 A Legal Practitioner 
 
 was a promise come what might, Tommy should 
 have that goodly heritage ! 
 
 " ' She's thinking of the old 'un,' " said Oliver, 
 lightly, as soon as we were alone; but the next 
 moment he strolled to the mantelpiece, and he 
 stood there cogitating, pipe in hand. I thought, 
 as I eyed him, what a fine strong face he had. 
 
 44
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 NEXT year there was another migration to the 
 cottage, but in the summer after that, Milly and the 
 boy went to Bude, on a visit to Oliver's friends. 
 He was engaged upon the superintendence of some 
 borings near Cliffborough in Derbyshire, and his 
 presence could not be dispensed with. We were to 
 have a holiday together in the autumn. 
 
 I was seated in my office one morning in July, 
 when a telegram was brought in. It had been de- 
 spatched from Wryston, the scene of Oliver's borings. 
 It ran as follows : Colliery accident. Murehison hurt. 
 Come immediately. Rail to Cliffborough : then carnage. 
 Wire Red Lion for post-horses Doctor Stephenson. 
 
 A telegram in those terms could have only one 
 meaning if I wanted to see my friend alive, there 
 was not a moment to be lost. 
 
 Fortunately my good, stolid, unemotional Pea- 
 cock was at hand, and in three minutes he had 
 looked out the train and made all the arrange- 
 ments. I had twenty minutes in which to get to St. 
 Pancras : he would see me into a cab at the corner 
 of Theobalds Eoad, and then wire to the Red Lion 
 and the doctor. I must take some money with me : 
 fortunately there was twenty pounds in the office till. 
 
 45
 
 A Legal Practitioner 
 
 Newsboys were crying the accident on Cliff- 
 borough platform. I got a paper as I passed out to 
 the vehicle that was in waiting, a victoria with a 
 postilion and four horses. I managed to read the 
 report as we dashed, swaying and jerking, round 
 the corners. There had been an explosion in a 
 mine hard by the new borings. Eight colliers had 
 been entombed. When all was panic, Oliver, who 
 knew the workings, had appeared at the pit mouth, 
 and, calmly and resolutely, he had organized a 
 rescue party, and had headed it. The eight men 
 had been saved, but he had been buried under a fall 
 of debris. Four doctors had been down to him, and 
 by incredible exertions he had been brought to the 
 surface alive. He was lying at the Half Moon inn 
 at Wryston, the latest messages reporting him as 
 still breathing. 
 
 I saw that we had got beyond the streets when 
 I laid down the newspaper, and for some time to 
 come I was just conscious that we were flying between 
 hedgerows. But that was all. It was only when I 
 felt the pace slacken, and I heard the postilion 
 shouting to clear the way, that I came to myself. 
 Then I saw that we were moving at a trot up 
 a broad untidy street, and the next moment we 
 were pulling up before the Half Moon. It seemed 
 the one old house in the place. There was an open 
 space before it, with a horse trough and a row of 
 pollards. There were benches too, with shawled 
 
 46
 
 Tommy Murchison's Heritage 
 
 women, who rocked themselves to and fro, and 
 moaned to the children in their arms. The whole 
 population seemed to be out of doors. All this 
 flashed on my sight as I walked up to the inn. A 
 sound like a great sob went up after me. 
 
 Dr. Stephenson was on the threshold; a small 
 dark man with a face like a Jesuit priest. 
 
 " Is he living ? " 
 
 "Yes, he's living; but " And the doctor 
 
 said no more. 
 
 I was led through the bar and up a flight of 
 stairs beyond. On the landing my guide stopped. 
 
 " I'll be back in a moment," he said. , 
 
 " Is he in pain ? " I faltered. 
 
 The doctor's nerves were worn to ribbons. " Of 
 course not ! " he answered angrily. " Do you think 
 we're fools ? " He disappeared through a doorway 
 as he spoke. 
 
 Two or three minutes later the door opened, and 
 he came forward and took me by the hand. He was 
 all gentleness now, as he led me inside and whispered 
 that I must not give way. I swore to myself that 
 I would not. 
 
 It was a spacious room ; and it was so dim that at 
 first I could see nothing more upon the bed than 
 a vague outline, but when I grew accustomed to the 
 light, I knew that it was Oliver's head upon the 
 pillow, and that one arm lay outside the coverlet. In 
 the background, glimmered the figures of two nurses. 
 
 47
 
 A Legal Practitioner 
 
 I could see no sign of life in the upturned face, and 
 when I took the hand that lay near me, it struck cold. 
 
 The doctor was on the other side bending over 
 the pillow. I could see his face distinctly. After 
 a long pause, he spoke in low, measured tones 
 
 " Your friend is here. He is holding your hand. 
 He is waiting for the message the message to your 
 wife. Can you give a sign that you hear me ? " 
 
 I waited, hoping for a pressure of the fingers, but 
 the doctor knew better. His gaze was still fixed 
 upon the pillow. 
 
 The interval of silence was so long that I had 
 given up all hope, when suddenly Stephenson raised 
 his hand as if to warn me, and I saw that Oliver's 
 eyes had opened, and were resting on my face. It 
 was for the last time ! 
 
 The next instant they were closed again but his 
 lips were moving. In a hollow whisper he spoke 
 three words, making a pause after the first "Love 
 . . . and Tommy" 
 
 "Tell him you understand!" said the doctor, 
 still bending low. 
 
 By a great effort I obeyed him. " I understand ! 
 ... I am to give your love to her and to Tommy. I 
 will go to them straightway." 
 
 Oliver's lips moved again ; and more slowly and 
 disjointedly than before, his words came forth "All 
 Irothers . . . wives and children . . . icon't regret." 
 
 This was unintelligible to me ; but Stephenson was 
 48
 
 Tommy Murchison's Heritage 
 
 able to interpret it from what had fallen from the 
 dying man, hours before. 
 
 "When his wife understands that eight brother 
 men men with wives and children have been saved, 
 she will not regret what has happened." 
 
 What a tribute it was to the loftiness of the 
 wife's soul! Stephenson had tried hard to speak 
 without emotion, but in vain. His voice was shaking 
 all the time. 
 
 After this there was another faint movement of 
 the lips, but no sound came. In the long silence 
 that followed, the doctor rose to his feet, and 
 stretched himself, but he kept his eyes fixed upon the 
 patient. Suddenly, there came a burst of low sobbing 
 from behind. One of the nurses had broken down. 
 
 " Leave the room ! " hissed her superior officer, 
 wheeling round in a fury " if you can't control your- 
 self," followed in the next breath, as he repented him 
 of his violence. 
 
 " Hush ! " I whispered ; for I thought the lips were 
 moving. 
 
 In a flash Stephenson's head was bending again 
 over the pillow ; but he was too late. 
 
 " I couldn't catch them," he said helplessly. 
 
 But I had caught those last words. Oliver had 
 murmured, " Good name," and I could fathom his 
 meaning Tommy had a goodly heritage. 
 
 49
 
 A PASSIVE RESISTER 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 MY client the Eev. Saxon Dawes, doctor of theology, 
 is a Nonconformist divine. He is a good-looking 
 little man in the middle thirties, fresh-coloured, and 
 entirely clean-shaven. The university of which he 
 is an alumnus is that of Eosherville, Tennesse. 
 
 I had been warned by his introducer that his 
 pulpit fervour was extraordinary, and that when 
 moved, he was not apt to measure his words. He 
 has undoubtedly, a great command of language, 
 and to speak the plain truth, he is, or was, a slave 
 to his own gift. In the course of my first inter- 
 view with him, he gave me a taste of his quality. 
 He began rationally enough, and so long as he 
 had the facts of the case to deal with, he kept 
 within bounds, but no sooner had he begun to 
 comment on them, than his colour deepened, his 
 protuberant blue eyes flashed fire, and his speech 
 became a wild torrent of denunciation and wrath. 
 I listened to him with some wonder, for his story 
 had made it clear to me that the object of his 
 
 50
 
 A Passive Resister 
 
 invective was a man whom he had wronged, and 
 I had a strong suspicion that the reverend gentle- 
 man knew this too, and was of opinion that he 
 would be lucky if he escaped the payment of 
 damages. Under the circumstances, it seemed 
 childish to bring such an oratorical fire-hose into 
 play in a solicitor's office. 
 
 I made no attempt to stop him. "The sooner 
 it's over, the sooner to sleep," was my reflection, 
 as I gazed blankly at him, and noted how the bold 
 curl above his forehead was losing its rigidity and 
 beginning to straggle over his temples, and how 
 the points of his collar had been wrenched from 
 under his waistcoat and were fretting his white tie 
 into disorder. 
 
 " Hum ! " I said, when at last the torrent had 
 ceased to flow, and the orator sat wiping his brow. 
 
 He started as if I had administered an electric 
 shock, and he gazed at me with a look that was 
 wholly crestfallen. I was bound to let him know 
 that my view of the case was unfavourable; but I 
 would have proceeded with more diplomacy, if I 
 had known that a mere ejaculation could so upset 
 him. "Emotional, not to say hysterical; as easily 
 depressed as uplifted," thought I. 
 
 " You think I'm in a mess ? " 
 
 He spoke deferentially, almost humbly, and there 
 was a frightened look in the eyes, which had been 
 blazing so fiercely.
 
 A Legal Practitioner 
 
 " You think I'm in a mess ? " he repeated. 
 
 There could be no two opinions on that point. 
 A certain eminent contractor had secured the con- 
 tract for rebuilding a bridge in the neighbourhood 
 of my client's chapel. This had given offence to 
 a member of the flock, a local builder whose tender 
 had been rejected. Instigated by this person, and 
 upon no evidence other than his assertions, the Eev. 
 Saxon had taken upon himself to refer to the matter 
 in the pulpit, and to charge the contractor, firstly, 
 with having paid wages in a public house, and, 
 secondly, with having wickedly and maliciously 
 tried to ruin a Nonconformist and teetotal workman, 
 who had refused to enter the place. This had come 
 to the ears of the slandered party ; and a fiery letter 
 from his solicitors, demanding an explanation and 
 threatening proceedings had followed. 
 
 "A clear case of slander, I'm afraid," said I. 
 "I see they claim to have a shorthand note of 
 your sermon. Did you pitch it very strong ? " 
 
 " I'm afraid I was rather heated. I can't recall 
 what I said, but I'm afraid I was rather warm. It 
 is such a wicked thing to put the temptation to 
 drink before working men, that " 
 
 I broke in here, for my client's voice was 
 beginning to rise, and I had no wish to listen to 
 a repetition of his outburst. 
 
 "He seems to think it was a wicked thing to 
 bring false charges against him," I said icily. 
 
 52
 
 A Passive Resister 
 
 " I didn't know they were false." 
 
 " Of course you didn't ; but we must face the facts 
 as we now know them." 
 
 " I can't defend what I said." 
 
 " And you're sorry you said it ? " 
 
 " I'm very sorry indeed ! " His eyes sought the 
 solicitors' letter as he said this, and he spoke with 
 great conviction. By the exercise of no little self- 
 control, I managed to keep my countenance. 
 
 " I'm sorry, apart from that letter," he went on. 
 " It isn't seemly for a minister of religion to slander 
 a fellow-creature. I feel that. Yes, I am sorry." 
 
 " We must try and put it right," I said en- 
 couragingly. 
 
 The little man's manner satisfied me that he was 
 speaking the truth, and he looked so innocent and 
 forlorn, that I began to pity him. 
 
 " The truth is, I sometimes go a little further 
 than I mean," he went on, still very penitent. " I'm 
 sure you'll do your best. I dare say you can guess 
 that I'm not rich. I'm a widower without children ; 
 but I've only three hundred a year and no savings. 
 There's my furniture, by-the-by, and I've insured 
 my life. Now you know all I have. If they bring an 
 action, I shall be in a bad way." 
 
 This was so practical, and according to my ex- 
 perience, so unusually frank that my heart warmed 
 to the reverend gentleman. 
 
 " You leave it to me," I said. " You shall hear 
 53
 
 A Legal Practitioner 
 
 something in a day or two. And don't you worry 
 yourself in the mean time ! It's a bad thing to be too 
 hopeful in these matters, but I don't anticipate that 
 anything very serious will happen." 
 
 The contractor was satisfied with an apology. 
 The thanks which my client offered me when the 
 matter had been arranged were a little florid, but I 
 had no doubt of their sincerity. 
 
 A few months later I had proof that he had not 
 forgotten me, for I received from him a presentation 
 copy of a small book, entitled " Old Testament Heroes." 
 In the note which came with it, he said that this was 
 his first appearance as an author. With the wariness 
 of an old bird, I did not let the sun go down before I 
 had written acknowledging the gift, and enlarging in 
 glowing terms upon the pleasure which I hoped to 
 receive from its perusal. 
 
 It was some two years after " Old Testament 
 Heroes " had been laid before the public, that the 
 author reappeared in Gray's Inn. He came without 
 notice, and at first I thought that he was again in 
 trouble. There was an air of suppressed excitement 
 about him as he dropped into a chair, and began to 
 brush his hat with his sleeve. His opening words 
 were, however, reassuring. 
 
 " I'm not in another mess. Ha, ha, ha ! " There 
 was nervousness in his laugh, but it was excitement, 
 not uneasiness, that lay behind it. 
 
 " No, I'm not in a mess this time," he continued ; 
 54
 
 A Passive Resister 
 
 " though you might think I was, if you knew what I 
 wanted. I'm going to give a bill of sale." 
 
 "A bill of sale!" 
 
 "Yes, a bill of sale. I thought you'd be 
 astonished. It doesn't sound quite respectable; 
 does it ? " 
 
 " I don't know about that, but it certainly isn't a 
 nice way of raising money. There's so much 
 publicity about it." 
 
 To my surprise, the Eev. Saxon Dawes received 
 this with a peal of laughter. 
 
 " Publicity ! I must face that," he said ; and he 
 laughed again. 
 
 " I don't see anything to laugh at." 
 
 "Can't you guess what I mean? Surely you 
 know what we Passive Eesisters are doing ? " 
 
 " What has passive resistance to do with bills of 
 sale ? I thought it meant letting the local authorities 
 seize your goods." 
 
 " We've got a little beyond that. We don't let 
 the bishops get our money now to propagate Roman- 
 ism. They have to send us to prison instead." 
 
 " Because you've no goods to levy on ? " 
 
 " Precisely ; so now we give some one a bill of 
 sale. No money passes, and, of course, the things 
 remain with us." 
 
 " Bather a complicated business," I remarked. 
 
 "Ah, but every man sent to prison for conscience' 
 sake, knocks another nail into the coffin of this 
 
 55
 
 A Legal Practitioner 
 
 infamous Tory Government. I suppose you know 
 Mr. Bellamy Orme ; he's a lawyer." 
 
 " I know something of him," I answered. " Do 
 you know him ? " 
 
 " He's a friend of mine." The pride in the little 
 man's tone was unmistakable. "He's going to 
 stand for our division. We expect an election in a 
 few months. The present Ministry can't live long, 
 and then we shall win the seat. I've been doing a 
 good deal of political work lately. We Free Church 
 ministers wield an immense power if we care to 
 exercise it. We're beginning to take our proper 
 place at last. That's what Orme said to me last 
 night I was dining with him in the Temple." 
 
 As a matter of fact, I knew more of Mr. Bellamy 
 Orme, E.G., than I thought it necessary to avow. He 
 is a jovial, loose-tongued cynic, doing a considerable 
 business in the shadier walks of the King's Bench 
 Division, and making occasional appearances in 
 Divorce and at the Old Bailey. Cold-shouldered by 
 his fellows of the Bar, he is of high repute in 
 theatrical circles, and with the baser elements of his 
 own profession he is very popular indeed. Nor is 
 this popularity undeserved ; for though a man may 
 be the shadiest of solicitors, or the most disreputable 
 of managing clerks, Mr. Bellamy Orme will treat him 
 like a brother, if only there are briefs to be got by 
 making up to him. 
 
 A visit to this great lawyer's chambers is a 
 56
 
 A Passive Resister 
 
 curious experience for a solicitor of the ordinary 
 type. I have been assured by old practitioners that 
 at consultations, Sir Richard Bethell would lie at 
 full length upon a sofa, and would so demean himself 
 to both junior and client, that ere five minutes had 
 gone by, the right toe of each of them would be 
 tingling to kick him. And I have been told that it 
 was Sir Eoundell Palmer's custom to receive his 
 junior with a handshake, and then to acknowledge 
 the presence of the solicitor by a frosty bow. Things 
 are managed very differently at Mr. Orme's. In his 
 chambers there is no mincing criticism of details, no 
 half-veiled assertion of superiority, no stand-offish- 
 ness of any kind. From that warm-blooded atmo- 
 sphere a new client is pretty certain to carry away 
 the recollection of a slap or two upon the back, to 
 say nothing of a few genial oaths, and, perhaps, a 
 gross story. 
 
 Though leading counsel of this type are not 
 common, and it is rare for two of such gladiators to 
 flourish at the same time, I am old stager enough to 
 have known several of the kidney ; all patrons of the 
 drama; all chronically insolvent: loose livers and 
 jolly companions, every one ! As a purveyor of the 
 rhetoric, which is supposed to move jurymen to 
 return outrageous verdicts, Mr. Bellamy Orme is 
 in no whit inferior to his brethren in the same line 
 of business, and in cross-examination, as the art is 
 practised by such ruffians, he has no living rival. A 
 
 57
 
 A Legal Practitioner 
 
 very fair summary of his methods, as compared with 
 those of his contemporaries, was contained in an 
 observation which I overheard outside the Divorce 
 Court " Good old Orme ! he cuts it a bit nearer the 
 knuckle than any of 'em." 
 
 Knowing all this, it was laughable to hear a Non- 
 conformist minister reverentially quoting the man's 
 electioneering trash, and glorying in his friendship. 
 
 "I didn't know that Mr. Orme was a candidate," 
 I said, by way of leading up to a word of warning. 
 " I never heard that he had ambitions in that 
 direction." 
 
 " I don't think he had until the Education Act 
 was passed. That pricked his conscience like a spear. 
 He was saying last night that it behoved every man 
 to put his shoulder to the wheel until such an 
 iniquity had ceased to defile the pages of the Statute 
 Book I don't think he's allied to any particular 
 religious body, but he's a man of strong religious 
 feeling. A magnificent speaker, too." 
 
 " I've heard him," said I, drily. 
 
 But the Rev. Saxon was too full of his idol to 
 notice such a trifle as an inflection. 
 
 "And he's something of a literary man," he went 
 on. "I don't think I ever heard anything more 
 stimulating than his criticism on my little book the 
 ' Old Testament Heroes,' you know. It wasn't mere 
 praise ; one gets sick of that. It was the discriminat- 
 ing criticism of a scholar, who had taken the trouble 
 
 58
 
 A Passive Resister 
 
 to study your book, so as to grasp the standpoint 
 from which you wrote it. He's going to read the 
 manuscript of a second series of the * Heroes/ which 
 I've just finished." 
 
 At this moment a clerk came in with a card. 
 " Mr. Fitzroy Nangle : a friend of Dr. Dawes/' he 
 said, as he handed it to me. 
 
 " Oh yes ; I was just going to tell you about him," 
 said the learned doctor. "He arranged to meet me 
 here; but I came a little early. He has my full 
 confidence ; he's one of my church officers." 
 
 Mr. Fitzroy Nangle proved to be a person of ex- 
 traordinary appearance. He was a lean man, well 
 stricken in years, whose dress was that of a dandy in 
 a fashion plate, and whose lank hair, the colour of 
 a dead leaf, was parted at the back and brought 
 forward in wisps round his ears. He came into my 
 room, struggling with a lavender glove, and as I took 
 his hand, I noticed the glitter of three or four 
 diamond rings. 
 
 " A very pretty figure to take round the collecting- 
 box," thought I, as I listened to his assurances of the 
 pleasure which he felt at making my acquaintance. 
 His manner was as oily as his hair, and he diffused 
 about him a strong odour of bergamot. 
 
 One's first impression of a gentleman approaching 
 seventy, who garbs himself in raiment suggestive of 
 a youthful bridegroom, is not likely to be favourable ; 
 and when that raiment sits upon the wearer as if his 
 
 59
 
 A Legal Practitioner 
 
 pigeon-breasted trunk were a light wickerwork basket, 
 and his members were no more substantial than 
 sticks of sealing-wax, to say nothing of his possess- 
 ing a mean face, adorned on either side with a wisp 
 of clay-coloured hair, most elaborately curled, an 
 ordinary person can hardly be censured for thinking, 
 at first blush, that such an individual must be a fool. 
 Before, however, Mr. Nangle had got to the end of 
 his soft nothings, I began to doubt the correctness of 
 my first impression. There was something in his 
 eyes which I could not fathom, and I had a con- 
 viction that he was studying me as closely as I was 
 studying him. 
 
 But whether he was fool or knave, and apart 
 altogether from his gorgeous appearance and offensive 
 perfume, one thing was certain : a man with that 
 manner had no business to walk the earth. The 
 slimy fervour of his remarks to me had been bad 
 enough; but when he proceeded to greet the Bev. 
 Saxon, he made my gorge rise. He took one of the 
 little man's hands between both his own and pressed 
 it to his bosom. 
 
 " Our friend has told you the object of our visit, 
 I suppose," said this very objectionable person, with 
 a smile, which displayed a brave show of false teeth. 
 
 "It's about a bill of sale, I understand." 
 
 " Yes, yes ! a bill of sale to put our friend's goods 
 and chattels out of the enemy's reach. An un- 
 pleasant necessity such an unpleasant necessity ! 
 
 60
 
 A Passive Resister 
 
 but in these matters we must take things as we find 
 them." 
 
 "Dr. Dawes has explained the proposed trans- 
 action ; and I'm not sure that I like it," said I. 
 
 " Possibly you are not a supporter of our move- 
 ment? " insinuated Mr. Nangle, with a patient smile, 
 but with rather less honey in his tone. 
 
 " As a matter of fact, I am not." 
 
 " Then, no doubt, you would rather be relieved of 
 the business. We, of all people in the world, ought 
 to respect a brother's convictions. You agree with 
 me there, Dr. Dawes ? " 
 
 Mr. Nangle's manner was still apostolically mild 
 and gentle, but there was an uneasy look in his eye 
 as he turned to his pastor. 
 
 " The difficulty which I feel has nothing to do 
 with my personal opinions," I struck in, before the 
 reverend gentleman could say anything. "Bills of 
 sale are not much in my line, but if there's to be no 
 bond fide consideration here, I doubt if any one can 
 frame an instrument that will even look decent to 
 say nothing of what will happen if it's attacked 
 unless Dr. Dawes subscribes to something that isn't 
 true. I'm sure he doesn't mean to do that." 
 
 " Eeally, really ! Is it necessary even to suggest 
 such a thing ? " protested the church officer, with his 
 hand uplifted. " Need we pursue the matter any 
 further, Dr. Dawes, so far as this gentleman is 
 concerned ? " 
 
 61
 
 A Legal Practitioner 
 
 "I ought to hear anything that could be said 
 against it," said the minister, uncomfortably. " One 
 mustn't do evil that good may come of it," he added, 
 his eye wandering uneasily from Nangle's face to 
 mine and back again. "No, no, we mustn't do 
 that." 
 
 " Of course not ; but surely, my dear friend, there 
 can be no doubt on the moral question, and surely 
 you must remember how Mr. Orme laughed at the 
 idea of there being any legal difficulties. Why, it 
 was on his assurance that there were none that you 
 promised last night to be a torchbearer in the good 
 cause." 
 
 There was a suave deference in Nangle's tone, 
 but his leather cheeks were slightly flushed, and 
 he seemed to be watching his shepherd very closely. 
 
 Dawes said nothing. I could see that he was 
 anxious to hear me out, but was a little overborne 
 by the remembrance of his promise. 
 
 " It must not be forgotten," resumed the church 
 officer, "that our brethren all over England and 
 Wales have taken the step which Dr. Dawes has 
 pledged himself to take " 
 
 "That is so! Surely they can't all be wrong," 
 exclaimed his chief, brightening up. 
 
 " They may have acted under bad advice," said I, 
 looking straight at the evil counsellor. 
 
 He flushed up under this declaration of war, 
 and a gleam that was not at all apostolic sparkled 
 
 62 
 
 \
 
 A Passive Resister 
 
 in his eyes. But only for a moment; he was far 
 too wary to give me the advantage of quarrelling 
 with him before his minister. 
 
 "Our brethren have taken counsel of those 
 learned in the wisdom of this world, and what, sir, 
 is far more important, they have sought guidance 
 elsewhere," he said, with meek reproach. 
 
 "You must pardon me if I speak with some 
 warmth," he continued; "but the truth is, our 
 friend, Dr. Dawes, has already given some offence to 
 the more zealous of our brethren. I will not say that 
 he was wrong, but I am naturally anxious that he 
 shall not weaken his influence by again grieving 
 those who are bearing the burden and heat of the 
 day, if anything so painful can be avoided." 
 
 " How did you offend ? " I asked the minister. 
 
 "I refused to take legal proceedings against 
 the auctioneer, who sold a silver inkstand of mine 
 to pay my proportion of the last rate. He com- 
 mitted some slight informality I forget exactly what 
 it was. He came and explained that the mistake 
 was a mere slip of his own, and he apologized for 
 it. I really couldn't go to law with him after that. 
 Only the Sunday before, I had been preaching from 
 the text, 'Blessed are the merciful.' As a matter of 
 fact, I promised the man I wouldn't do anything. 
 I couldn't let him go away with the fear of an action 
 hanging over him. That's a terrible thing for any 
 one of moderate means." 
 
 63
 
 A Legal Practitioner 
 
 From the shamefaced air with which the poor 
 little man looked at Nangle when he began this 
 explanation, I could see that the more zealous 
 brethren, including his church officer, had bitterly 
 resented this tenderness towards the enemy's agent. 
 
 " I think you did quite right." I spoke warmly, 
 for at the end of his explanation he had turned to 
 me with a grateful look, which I quite understood. 
 
 "I say nothing to the contrary," protested 
 
 Nangle; "but " And by way of hinting the 
 
 disapproval which he did not think it politic to 
 declare, he uplifted both his hands, and grinned 
 hideously. 
 
 "Perhaps it was a matter of conscience with Dr. 
 Dawes," I remarked, a strong inclination to assault 
 the noisome one tingling in every fibre of my body. 
 
 A red spot burned in his cheeks, and the crows- 
 footed old eyes were very angry. I admit that I 
 had purposely laid a little stress on the word con- 
 science, in the hope that this would infuriate him. 
 
 " Possibly to you, sir, the whole movement seems 
 a mistake ? " he said. 
 
 " I know very little about it, and care less ; but 
 I must confess I don't sympathize with it in the 
 least." 
 
 Nangle looked at the Eev. Saxon as much 
 as to say, "Need we stop here any longer after 
 that?" and began to put on his glove. Seeing, 
 however, that his invitation was disregarded, 
 
 64
 
 A Passive Resister 
 
 that the other was still in doubt, he discovered that 
 the fingers demanded a deal of coaxing ; and as he 
 fiddled with them, I felt certain that he was racking 
 his brains for something, which would bring the 
 discussion to an end. 
 
 "I mustn't waste your time by trying to argue 
 the point," he said, when the glove had been eased 
 on to his satisfaction. "I don't suppose I should 
 bring you round to my views, and I'm sure you 
 wouldn't make a convert of me or of Dr. Dawes, 
 either." 
 
 He spoke in perfect good-humour, and he patted 
 my shoulder with a playfulness that was quite 
 kittenish. 
 
 " Only yesterday," he went on, in the same easy 
 way "only yesterday, Dr. Turpin was telling me 
 how he had argued for an hour with a member of 
 your profession, without the least result ; and it's not 
 likely that I shall succeed where he failed or even 
 Dr. Dawes himself. What do you say, doctor ? " 
 
 " I don't pretend to have Dr. Turpin's influence." 
 Dr. Dawes made this admission with some coldness. 
 
 " Of course, I was only referring to his influence. 
 You know me too well to suppose that I should 
 dream of suggesting that his powers were in any 
 way superior to your own. But, after all, what an 
 influence he does wield ! " 
 
 Nangle clicked his tongue to give emphasis to 
 this expression of wonder. 
 
 65 p
 
 A Legal Practitioner 
 
 " Only think of what Turpin was a year or two 
 ago, and what he is now!" he went on. "Why, 
 the public knew nothing of him." 
 
 "It ia wonderful," admitted the pastor, almost 
 viciously. 
 
 " Of course, I admit it's only because he's been 
 able to make his name known over the Education 
 Act," resumed the tempter ; " but there's no doubt 
 that he is one of the foremost men in the country 
 just now. Why, he'd have his pick of half the 
 Liberal seats in England, if he cared to stand for 
 Parliament ; and just think of the influence he has 
 behind the scenes I The leaders of the party are 
 proud to have him at their houses. They're his 
 obedient humble servants. Ha 1 ha 1 ha 1 " 
 
 The Eev. Saxon was meditating and he made no 
 answer, but a mere glance at his face convinced me 
 that Nangle had triumphed. "If Dr. Turpin, why 
 not Dr. Dawes?" was written upon it in legible 
 characters. 
 
 "You think Mr. Orme understood me to give a 
 promise last night ? " he said at last. 
 
 " Not a doubt of it, my dear friend. Of course, 
 if you think you oughtn't to do it, that must make no 
 difference ; but I hope you won't ask me to go and 
 tell him." 
 
 " But I will do it," said the pastor, rising to his 
 feet. His doubts had all vanished by this time. 
 His face was flushed and his protuberant blue eyes 
 
 66
 
 A Passive Resister 
 
 were on fire. In imagination he saw himself con- 
 trolling the destinies of the Empire. 
 
 I was too busy a man to spend my time in trying 
 to persuade a Nonconformist minister of ripe years 
 that he had no more judgment than a child, but after 
 the two had gone, my conscience smote me a little for 
 not having made a last attempt to keep the poor 
 little man out of mischief. 
 
 " It really was good of him to refuse to blackmail 
 that auctioneer," I said to myself. " There ar'n't 
 many poorish men of any calling, who'd refuse the 
 chance of snatching at a bit of money, if it were 
 dangled within reach ; and here it was a case of 
 smiting the Amalekites. I suppose, by-the-by, that 
 Nangle was to be the other party to the bill of sale. 
 Well, well ! I dare say no great harm will come of 
 the job." 
 
 When, that evening, I sat smoking a last pipe 
 over my bachelor hearth, my thoughts turned to the 
 demoniacal adroitness with which the church-officer 
 had appealed to his pastor's vanity, and I laughed 
 to think of the reverend gentleman's ambitions. I 
 knew that I had found my own niche in the world, 
 and that on the whole, I was satisfied with it ; so 
 I was free to laugh at another man's wild dreams. 
 
 " It's hard to know one's place when that place is 
 a humble one," said I, with a dim remembrance of 
 the Temple barber in Sweet Lavender.
 
 CHAPTEE II 
 
 I DO not propose to put on record the precise shade 
 of Dr. Dawes' nonconformity ; nor shall I set forth 
 the name of the suburb, which is the scene of his 
 pastoral labours. I will call the place Temsley, and 
 will merely add that it forms part of one of the 
 parliamentary divisions of the county. 
 
 It was quite by chance that I found myself in the 
 neighbourhood, some three or four months after my 
 interview with the reverend gentleman and his officer. 
 In the outskirts of Temsley is an old red -brick house, 
 whereof for some years during the Protectorate, 
 Eichard Cromwell was the tenant. My friend, Mr. 
 James C. Fairfield, of Chicago, U.S.A., who is a 
 keen topographist and a saunterer in the by-ways of 
 literature, had looked in upon me one afternoon to 
 announce that he was on his way to this shrine; 
 whereupon I, being slack of work, had consented to 
 make holiday with him. 
 
 I had noticed in the newspapers a week or two 
 before, that the member for the division was dead, 
 and that Mr. Bellamy Orme was standing in the 
 radical interest, but I found very little in the streets 
 
 68
 
 A Passive Resister 
 
 of Temsley to suggest that a contest was in progress. 
 Here and there, however, we came upon a specimen 
 of the usual electioneering literature, and once I 
 insisted on stopping to read a poster, which set forth 
 Mr. Orme's address. I take no interest in party 
 politics, but I felt sure that the Education Act must 
 be referred to, and I thought it would be interesting 
 to see what that truly spiritual person had to say 
 upon the religious question. I laughed so im- 
 moderately while I was perusing his observations, 
 that Mr. Fairfield, who had been passaging hither and 
 thither in a fever of impatience to be gone, came back 
 to my side and demanded the cause of my merriment. 
 
 We had once talked over the subject of Passive 
 Eesistance, and he had told me that the movement 
 was exciting a certain mild wonderment in the States, 
 where according to his account, the points of differ- 
 ence between the Episcopal Church and most of the 
 other religious bodies are even less marked than they 
 are in this country. In the course of our talk, I had 
 mentioned that a practice of alienating goods and 
 chattels in order to defeat the rating authorities, was 
 growing up among the more progressive members of 
 the cult. 
 
 " Is that the regulation attitude of your parlia- 
 mentary opposition ? " he asked, as soon as he had 
 read Mr. Orme's fulminations. 
 
 " There or thereabouts, I fancy." 
 
 " With whom does this sort of stuff go down ? " 
 69
 
 A Legal Practitioner 
 
 " The whole party seems to swallow it." 
 
 " Of course, of course ! it bring votes. What 
 I mean is : who really feels that there's a grievance 
 of the kind suggested here ? If what this candidate 
 says is true, the Conventicle Act and the Five Mile 
 Act were nothing to it. An ordinary man's common 
 sense must revolt at that." 
 
 "Do your countrymen show any sense of pro- 
 portion in their party politics ? " I inquired. 
 
 Mr. Fairfield considered the question, and then 
 laughed. 
 
 "It's a dirty trade everywhere," was all he said. 
 
 We were on our way back to the station, after 
 having inspected the old house, and also, I may 
 remark in passing, after a leisurely perambulation 
 of the hamlet generally, with many stoppages 
 before ancient buildings, especially taverns, when 
 I heard my name called from the other side of 
 the road, and there I saw the Eev. Saxon Dawes, 
 waving me a friendly greeting. He was the centre 
 of a little knot of people, whom he had evidently 
 been haranguing, but the next moment he ha4 
 broken loose and was shaking me by the hand. 
 
 " So glad, so glad 1 " he panted ; " but I mustn't 
 stay a minute. Couldn't let you go by without a 
 word, though. Great doings here, just now ! " 
 
 "My friend, Mr. Fairfield," said I, presenting 
 my companion, who was gazing down into the 
 little man's excited face, with more surprise than 
 
 70
 
 A Passive Resister 
 
 it is his wont to display over anything less moving 
 than a topographical discovery. 
 
 "Perhaps your friend won't care to know me, 
 when I tell him that, in all probability, I shall be 
 in prison before the end of the week," said the 
 reverend gentleman, with an excited laugh. 
 
 "Dr. Dawes is a Passive Resister," I explained. 
 
 Mr. Fairfield had bowed when I introduced 
 him. Now he bowed again, and he put out his 
 hand with grave dignity. 
 
 "It gives me much pleasure to make your 
 acquaintance, sir," he said. "Have I really the 
 honour of meeting a minister of religion, who is 
 about to sacrifice his liberty for conscience* sake? 
 I am myself, a descendant of the Pilgrim Fathers," 
 he added, to my great astonishment. 
 
 " A sympathizer indeed ! Surely not one of 
 our brethren from across the Atlantic?" cried the 
 pastor. Mr. Fairfield bowed again. 
 
 My friend is a bit of a humourist, but there 
 is nothing in his countenance to suggest this. He 
 stands above the middle height, and when his 
 spare, elderly figure bends low, he is very impres- 
 sive indeed. 
 
 "Delightful, delightful! At any other time I 
 should insist upon being allowed to improve our 
 acquaintance, but I was making certain arrange- 
 ments for this evening when I caught sight of our 
 friend here ; and really, really J "
 
 A Legal Practitioner 
 
 The little man was in a fever of excitement, 
 and he broke off to make wild gestures to his 
 forsaken audience. It was easy to see that they 
 were inclined to resent his having deserted them 
 so unceremoniously. 
 
 " I must go ; I must go ! " he ejaculated, wringing 
 Mr. Fairfield by the hand ; " but take these, my 
 dear sir! Perhaps you and our friend may be 
 able to support us. Till then; farewell and God 
 bless you ! " 
 
 He thrust two tickets upon my companion, and 
 with a frenzied good-bye to me and a lift of his 
 hat to both of us, he darted across the road. 
 
 There was a faint gleam of amusement in Mr. 
 Fairfield' s eyes, as through his pince-nez he scanned 
 the group opposite. The Kev. Saxon was gesticu- 
 lating wildly and talking nineteen to the dozen, 
 but the road was so wide that his excited whisper 
 reached us as a mere hiss. 
 
 " Mostly church-workers, I guess," was my 
 friend's comment, as we resumed our stroll. 
 
 " For how long are these good people imprisoned, 
 if they denude themselves of all their worldly 
 goods ? " he asked. 
 
 " One day I think perhaps a few days in some 
 cases." 
 
 "And in order to qualify for that martyrdom, 
 they have to go through all that legal machinery, you 
 were telling me about the other day ? " 
 
 72
 
 A Passive Resister 
 
 " Yes ; as I understand the matter they have to 
 give a bill of sale. Or, by-the-by, they can make a 
 deed of gift." 
 
 " I suppose the thing's a mere pretence, which- 
 ever way it's done." 
 
 " I suppose so. What are those tickets ? " Mr. 
 Fairfield was beginning to study them when I asked 
 this question, and I saw that he was waxing mirth- 
 ful in his solemn way. 
 
 " They are for the tea-meeting this evening. It 
 would be a sin to miss it." 
 
 "If you're going, you'll go alone," said I, stoutly. 
 
 " I don't know that the tea part has any great 
 attraction for me;" said Mr. Fairfield; "but I 
 must go to the meeting. Just listen to this. ' The 
 subsequent proceedings will be of the nature of a send-off 
 to our beloved pastor ; it being practically certain that 
 ere the next Lord's day, he will be sent to gaol, like a 
 common felon, for conscience 1 sake. Note. Mr. Bellamy 
 Orme, K.C., the Liberal candidate for the Division, will 
 be present. 1 " 
 
 " But you promised to get back to town in good 
 time, and dine with me," I grumbled. 
 
 "We can dine any day ; but never again may we 
 have the chance of seeing a Christian community bid 
 farewell to its pastor on his going to gaol for con- 
 science* sake. The mere thought of it," said Mr. 
 Fairfield, dreamily, " stirs my blood like a trumpet- 
 blast." 
 
 73
 
 A Legal Practitioner 
 
 " But we must have something to eat." 
 
 " There's just nice time to stroll to Eolleston ; 
 that's about two miles. We can find some cyclists' 
 inn there, and we can get back here by half-past 
 seven. The tea will be over by then; it begins at 
 half-past six." 
 
 This programme was duly carried out, but though 
 it was nearly eight o'clock when we entered the 
 chapel schoolroom, the clearing away after the feast 
 was yet in progress. The food and crockery had 
 disappeared, but there were still some boards and 
 trestles to be disposed of. We had hoped to step in 
 unobserved, but no sooner had Mr. Fairfield's tall 
 figure crossed the threshold, than Dr. Dawes caught 
 sight of him. In a moment he had made his way to 
 us, almost breathless with excitement. 
 
 " So glad, so glad ! I felt sure you would come," 
 he exclaimed, as he seized my friend's hand. 
 
 " I simply could not keep away," was the gratify- 
 ing answer. 
 
 " You must break bread with us you must break 
 bread with us," cried the pastor, turning on his heel 
 and darting away. 
 
 " But I am not an hungered, thank you ! " 
 
 Though Mr. Fairfield jerked this out in a high 
 voice and with much nervous energy, his plea was 
 all in vain, for the Rev. Saxon had vanished through 
 a side door. Presently he bustled out, carrying a 
 Bath bun and a cup of coffee. 
 
 74
 
 A Passive Resister 
 
 " You follow me : you follow me I " he panted. 
 "You must come upon the platform, my dear Mr. 
 Fairohild. So must you," he added, grasping me by 
 the hand. " I didn't see you before. So sorry 1 " 
 
 The platform was a large one; and behind the 
 usual table and its appurtenances were several rows 
 of ladies and gentlemen, seated upon chairs. Just 
 below, some one was playing the " Men of Harlech " 
 upon an American organ of considerable power. 
 
 " You are very kind," said I, much pleased at the 
 prospect of beholding Mr. Fairfield seated conspicuous 
 in the front row, while he broke bread, a solitary 
 feeder, to the strains of his national instrument. I 
 even ventured to hope that he would be called upon 
 for a speech later on. 
 
 But the descendant of the Pilgrim Fathers was 
 not disposed to make an exhibition of himself in this 
 fashion. 
 
 " I will sit here, thank you," he said, dropping 
 into a chair, that chanced to be empty, and directing 
 a humorous glance at me. 
 
 The pastor was about to remonstrate, but at that 
 moment somebody near us drew his attention to a 
 beckoning hand. The summons was apparently an 
 urgent one; for without another word he handed 
 over the refreshments to my companion and dashed 
 off. There was no mistaking the reverence in the 
 eyes of his flock, as he threaded his way towards the 
 platform.
 
 A Legal Practitioner 
 
 The chair occupied by Mr. Fairfield was the last 
 of a row, and for a moment he sat there somewhat 
 forlornly, with the cup and saucer in one hand and 
 the plate in the other. I heard a subdued feminine 
 laugh from somewhere near at hand, and I felt sure 
 that he had heard it too. 
 
 " Give me the plate, while you drink some 
 coffee ! " I whispered. " Then I'll take the cup, 
 and you can have some of the bun change and 
 change about, you know." 
 
 He received this suggestion with a twinkling 
 eye; but instead of adopting it, he deposited bun 
 and plate under his chair. This dexterous manoeuvre 
 provoked another subdued laugh, and I caught the 
 words "Friends of Dr. Dawes." A little commo- 
 tion followed, which ended in the chair next to my 
 friend's, being left vacant. He mumbled a few words 
 of thanks, and moving up one, made room for me. 
 His next proceeding was to get rid of the cup and 
 saucer by putting them under his new seat. 
 
 The organ was now discoursing " Scots wha hae," 
 and many feet were tapping in time to the melody. 
 
 "What do you suppose that elegant old ruin 
 is ? " whispered my companion. 
 
 I followed the direction of his gaze, fully expect- 
 ing to see Mr. Fitzroy Nangle; and sure enough, 
 there he was ; more youthfully dandified than ever, 
 and wearing in his buttonhole a huge bunch of 
 white flowers. 
 
 76
 
 A Passive Resister 
 
 " He's an office-holder of some kind : the pastor's 
 right-hand man," I answered. 
 
 " What a gay Lothario ! " was the next whisper. 
 
 We had both been watching Mr. Nangle as he 
 skipped about from one lady to another ; bowing, 
 smirking and gesticulating, more like a thing on 
 wires than a human being. He had nods, and 
 becks, and wreathed smiles for all and sundry; 
 here and there, a dear sister was patted on arm 
 or shoulder; and in not a few cases, a fair hand 
 was held captive between the church-officer's palms, 
 and pressed against his waistcoat. 
 
 "Mighty popular, too," sneered Mr. Fairfield, 
 turning up his nose. 
 
 " He's not such a fool as he looks." 
 
 As I said this, the music ceased. Hush ! hus-s-sh ! 
 hus-s-sh ! sounded from various parts of the school- 
 room, and a dead silence followed. A moment later, 
 the Eev. Saxon was mounting the platform steps, 
 with Nangle and three or four others in his wake. 
 There was loud applause when the pastor turned 
 his face to the audience, and many handkerchiefs 
 were waved. Some of these were of yellow silk, 
 the Radical colour, and not a few of the ladies and 
 gentlemen present wore favours of the same hue. 
 
 The proceedings, which followed, were a very 
 queer mixture of religion and party politics. In 
 the reverend gentleman's opening prayer, the key- 
 note of the gathering was struck by an oblique 
 
 77
 
 A Legal Practitioner 
 
 reference to St. Paul and the gaoler of Philippi, 
 which the audience acknowledged by a sound not 
 unlike a subdued hiss. Before this mention of St. 
 Paul, the prayer had been used as a vehicle for the 
 announcement that, owing to a temporary indisposi- 
 tion, Mr. Bellamy Orme had found it impossible to 
 be present. When this was followed by a hope that 
 on the morrow, "Thy servant, the candidate for 
 this division of our beloved county," would be 
 sufficiently restored to health to enable him to 
 pursue his canvass, and a chorus of amens sounded 
 from all parts of the room, Mr. Fairfield so far forgot 
 himself as to raise his head, in order to make sure that 
 I was paying due attention to all that was going on ! 
 
 After the prayer came a hymn, and after that, a 
 speech from a thin and voluble young lady with 
 fluffy hair and an aggressive pince-nez. The chair- 
 man introduced her to the meeting as a member of 
 the council of certain federated sisterhoods of political 
 workers, bearing a name which I did not catch. It 
 was a long and breathless oration in support of Mr. 
 Orme, hot and strong all through, and particularly 
 highly spiced in regard to the Education Act; but 
 it contained no reference to the special object of the 
 meeting, and it lasted for so long that I began to 
 wonder whether Mr. Fairfield had not been lured 
 thither under false pretences. 
 
 At last, however, this terrible harangue came to 
 an end. 
 
 78
 
 A Passive Resister 
 
 "I will now call upon one whom, I am sure, 
 we are all longing to hear our dear brother Nangle," 
 announced the pastor; and at the sound of his 
 name the church-officer sprang to his feet, waving 
 an enormous yellow handkerchief. In his progress 
 from a chair, some distance in rear of the president, 
 he made a pause, to bow in answer to the roar of 
 welcome which greeted him, and then he ambled 
 forward with the gait of a buffoon, and the set smile 
 of a merry-andrew. He struck his flag when he 
 reached the front, but for a moment or two, he kept 
 up the wagging of his head and the dancing move- 
 ment of his feet. The applause was deafening. 
 
 Brother Nangle began his speech by begging 
 leave to ask the ladies a riddle a riddle which the 
 gentlemen in the audience must pretend not to hear. 
 There was an arch waggishness in his manner, which 
 set my teeth on edge, and brought a scowl of dis- 
 gust to Mr. Fairfield's visage; but, with a few ex- 
 ceptions, all the people about us were in ecstacies. 
 The church-officer was evidently a prime favourite 
 and something of a chartered libertine ; for, though 
 here and there, I noticed an uneasy and half-pro- 
 testing smile, it was evident that the bulk of the 
 audience had steeled themselves to welcome with a 
 fearful joy, whatever wit and humour he might think 
 fit to lay before them. 
 
 Amid a fire of titters and subdued " Oh-oh's ! " 
 Fitzroy proceeded to inquire why a lady's slipper 
 
 79
 
 A Legal Practitioner 
 
 was like the Archbishop of Canterbury ; but though 
 Mr. Fairfield was busy with pencil and paper, and 
 I dare say his record still remains, that record is 
 not now in England, and unfortunately my memory 
 is unable to recall the harmless but idiotic answer, 
 which the church-officer eventually furnished. 
 
 As soon as this pleasantry was disposed of, he 
 went straight to the heart of his subject the woes 
 of Passive Resisters as a class, and, in particular, 
 the threatened imprisonment of his spiritual chief. 
 His speech was jerky, but by no means ineffective, 
 and what he lacked in oratory, he made up in 
 venom. His recital of the cruel and unnatural 
 persecution to which the reverend gentleman had 
 been subjected, was relieved by an occasional lapse 
 into jocularity; but, despite this comic relief, the 
 story, as he told it, was so moving that before he 
 had made much progress, the air was rent with 
 groans of wrath and sympathy. When near the 
 close, he drew a lurid picture of the felon's cell, 
 there were howls of indignation from the sterner 
 sex, and many tears from the ladies. So affecting 
 was this part of the oration to the Eev. Saxon, 
 that he found it necessary to hide his face in his 
 hands. 
 
 Before this, Mr. Nangle had explained, that 
 though for reasons so well known to his hearers, that 
 a statement of them would be wearisome, it had not 
 been thought advisable for any one but the pastor 
 
 80
 
 A Passive Resister 
 
 to go to prison for conscience* sake, it must not be 
 forgotten that many members of the flock had suf- 
 fered a deprivation of their worldly goods, rather 
 than bow the knee to Baal. He, himself, as was 
 known to all of them, had surrendered a watch-chain, 
 endeared by many tender associations, and of his 
 brothers and sisters there present, many had made 
 sacrifices of a like character. This, however, was a 
 trifle ; for our household gods were merely the things 
 of this world, which, as his hearers knew so well, 
 was not our home, but was only a sojourning place 
 on our journey to the New Jerusalem. But there 
 were things, so sacred in their character, as to 
 inspire respect in the bosom of a pagan or an 
 idolator. Could it be believed that the so-called 
 Church of England had no such scruples? Yes, 
 alas! He confessed that he spoke hotly; but the 
 friends among whom he stood, would pardon his 
 warmth nay, they would share it ! for they would 
 remember that our persecutors, who called them- 
 selves Christians, had not hesitated to seize and offer 
 for sale, a book, which to every one in that room was 
 more precious than life itself. Need he add that he 
 was referring to the Bible, of which the P.S.A. had 
 been so shamefully despoiled ? 
 
 "He's as pious as Charles II.," whispered Mr. 
 Fan-field, under cover of the burst of indignation 
 which this aroused. "But what on earth is a 
 P.S.A. ? " 
 
 81 a
 
 A Legal Practitioner 
 
 "It's a guild or association for amusing or in- 
 structing working-men on Sunday afternoons; it 
 means Pleasant Sunday Afternoons," I answered. 
 
 The church-officer brought his speech to a close 
 by an appeal to all Christians to vote for Mr. Bellamy 
 Orme ; and as, with many bows and a profuse dis- 
 play of the yellow handkerchief, he retired back- 
 wards to his seat, the organ struck up the rousing 
 melody of a revival hymn. The cheering and clap- 
 ping died away, and presently a few trained voices 
 near the instrument began to sing the words. These 
 were frankly political in their character. The ship 
 called Old England, was buffeting a tempest; her 
 sails were torn to ribbons, and there were rocks 
 upon her lee. The crew in their despair, upbraided 
 the captain, who had reduced them to such straits, 
 and called upon Providence to send them a pilot. 
 Temsley heard the cry, and answered in a rattling 
 chorus that Bellamy Orme was on his way to succour 
 them. 
 
 At the end of this ditty, the organist rose, and 
 stated that it was his privilege to make an announce- 
 ment, which would perhaps come more fittingly 
 from his lips than from those of their beloved pastor. 
 A member of the congregation, who wished to be 
 nameless, had composed an original poem upon a 
 matter very near to all their hearts. This' poem he, 
 the speaker, had set to music and it would now be 
 his privilege to submit it to the critical judgment of 
 
 82
 
 A Passive Resister 
 
 that great gathering. Certain membera of the choir 
 had been kind enough to promise him their vocal 
 assistance, and he had only to add that copies of 
 the words and music would immediately be brought 
 round for sale, at the price of sixpence apiece. 
 
 "What made you think of Charles II. ? " I asked 
 of Mr. Fairfield during the lull that followed. 
 
 " I remembered that when the people of Dover 
 presented him with a Bible, he said it was the 
 thing that he loved above all things in the world." 
 
 "By-the-by, I feel a sort of abhorrence of that 
 office-bearer," he went on, in a low whisper; " he 
 makes me feel creepy 
 
 By the pricking of my thumbs, 
 Something wicked this way comes.' 
 
 That's how he strikes me." 
 
 The original poem was called " The Better Way." 
 At the first notes of the prelude, all the people on 
 the platform, except the minister, stood up. This 
 was no impulse of the moment. The serried rows 
 behind the table sprang up like one man ; and quick 
 as lightning, all below followed suit. The effect of 
 this act of homage was very striking. Even I was 
 conscious of a slight thrill, as I stood up with the 
 rest, and noted how tense and rigid all the figures 
 were, andjaow every eye was bent upon the pastor in 
 his armchair. He was pale as death ; and though 
 he lay back with his face buried in his hands, I felt 
 sure that the tears were flowing. He maintained 
 
 83
 
 A Legal Practitioner 
 
 this attitude throughout the song; but near the 
 close, I was satisfied that he had regained his self- 
 control. Watching him closely, I felt no doubt 
 that he had slightly opened his fingers, and was 
 scrutinizing the audience through the chinks. 
 
 The following are the words of "The Better 
 Way " 
 
 The joys of earth are naught to one, 
 
 Who treads the better way ; 
 Tho' all is bright beneath the son 
 
 He will not pause or stay. 
 The gardens stretch on either hand ; 
 
 The olive groves are fair, 
 And all about, the feathered band 
 
 Make music in the air : 
 But lo I he passes on to choose 
 The rack, the faggot, or the noose. 
 
 The spoils of earth, he spurns them all : 
 
 The jewels of the mine, 
 The stately lilies fair and tall, 
 
 The clusters of the vine, 
 The meats that smoke upon the board, 
 
 The oates of sweet delight 
 Can nothing but disdain afford 
 
 To one who loves the right. 
 He passes by them all to choose 
 The rack, the faggot, or the noose. 
 
 The snares of earth are naught to him : 
 
 The censer's honeyed breath, 
 Which rolls through the cathedral dim, 
 
 Can never dull his faith : 
 Tho' Satan come with many a dole, 
 
 And offer to him there, 
 The alb, the rochet, or the stole, 
 
 The mitre or the Ohair, 
 He spurns them with his foot to choose 
 The rack, the faggot, or the noose. 
 
 84
 
 A Passive Resister 
 
 Organ and choir wailed out a long-drawn amen ; 
 and before this had died away, the hero of the 
 evening had risen from his chair, and was confront- 
 ing the audience below him. All were still upon 
 their feet ; and in a flash, the lines of singers were a 
 congregation no longer, but a surging, swaying mob, 
 cheering and waving their handkerchiefs. 
 
 This enthusiasm was kept up for a full minute, 
 or more, but the Eev. Saxon faced it unmoved. 
 He stood with his arms folded and his eyes bent 
 upon the floor, and he paid no heed to the gradual 
 lulling of the storm. The silence that followed upon 
 the rustle of the people seating themselves, was so 
 profound that one could have heard a pin drop, and 
 it was so oppressive that when at last, the words: 
 "My friends ! " boomed forth from the platform, the 
 audience welcomed them with a long-drawn sigh of 
 relief. 
 
 Although I knew something of my client's powers 
 as an orator, the tornado of verbosity, which he pro- 
 ceeded to let loose in respect of the two shillings and 
 threepence, which his conscience forbade him to pay 
 to the local authorities, fairly amazed me. As he 
 went on, the room seethed and bubbled with excite- 
 ment, and he, himself, was as a reed shaken in the 
 wind of his own eloquence. 
 
 Knowing him to be a worthy man, and honest to 
 boot, according to his lights, one felt a sort of pity 
 for him as he lashed himself into a fury. To listen 
 
 85
 
 A Legal Practitioner 
 
 to him, and doubt that, for the time being, he fully 
 believed all that he was saying, was out of the 
 question; and yet, was it consistent with fair 
 average sanity, that any one should be able to so 
 deceive himself ? What were the facts of the case ? 
 It was within my own knowledge that, spurred on by 
 vanity and evil councillors, he had pretended to 
 denude himself of his goods for the express purpose 
 of winning the notoriety, which imprisonment alone 
 could give him, and to that end, he had knowingly 
 prostituted the forms of law. Nevertheless, here he 
 stood, posing as a martyr, and dwelling in windy 
 boastfulness upon the ills which he had suffered, and 
 was yet prepared to suffer, in the sacred cause of 
 conscience. And perhaps most wonderful of all ! 
 here was a congregation of staid, respectable citizens, 
 who knowing as much, or nearly as much, as I did 
 of all that had gone before, were applauding him 
 to the echo, and in some cases were following his 
 rhetoric with streaming eyes. Looking hither and 
 thither, to mark the effect of his words, I noticed 
 that Nangle had left the platform, and had perched 
 himself upon a table at the opposite end of the 
 room. There he sat, swinging his legs, and eyeing 
 his pastor with the grin of a Mephistopheles. 
 
 Now and again the minister enlarged upon the 
 woes of the Free Churches with a wealth of illustra- 
 tion, which did credit to his miscellaneous reading. 
 At one moment, those suffering churches figured as 
 
 86
 
 A Passive Resister 
 
 Andromeda, chained to the rock and awaiting rescue 
 at the hands of Bellamy Orme. A little later, they 
 were a martyr of the Solway, almost submerged by 
 the rising waters. So dramatic was my client's 
 treatment of this illustration, that, for the time being, 
 he was the martyr and the chair behind him waa 
 the stake. I found it difficult to preserve my gravity 
 as he nestled up 'to the mahogany, and enforced his 
 description of the scene, by indicating upon his 
 waistcoat, button by button, the inexorable rising of 
 the advancing flood. 
 
 Mr. Fairfield assured me of his appreciation of 
 this performance, by a gentle pressure of his elbow, 
 but the faces of all others within my range of vision, 
 bore a look of intense and overmastering interest. 
 
 Just then, there was a merry twinkle in my com- 
 panion's eye, but before long, his merriment gave 
 place to anger. The Kev. Saxon, & propos of the 
 persecutions of a ruder and more barbarous age 
 than ours, favoured us with a highly coloured, and by 
 no means accurate, account of his meeting that after- 
 noon, with a descendant of the Pilgrim Fathers ; and 
 he went on to point out that in leaving their native 
 land, to find across the seas a new home, in which 
 they could worship God according to their con- 
 sciences, these exiles had been guilty of a pusilla- 
 nimity, which the speaker found it easy to forgive, 
 but not easy to palliate. 
 
 " We, Free Churchmen of to-day," cried he, " will 
 87
 
 A Legal Practitioner 
 
 remain in our beloved country and beard our perse- 
 cutors in their dens." 
 
 Mr. Fairfield took this reflection upon his fore- 
 fathers extremely ill. 
 
 " Your little friend is a blithering idiot," was his 
 wrathful whisper. 
 
 Near the end of the address, the pastor referred to 
 the support and sympathy, which throughout all his 
 tribulations, he had received from his dear Brother 
 Nangle. But for that brotherly assistance, he must 
 have faltered in his purpose of vindicating, even to 
 the bitter end, the sacred rights of conscience; and 
 he ventured fervently, but in all humility, to breathe 
 a hope that when he and that good man had both 
 departed from this mortal scene, Temsley would say 
 of them in the sublime language of that book, which, 
 as we all knew, had received such scant reverence 
 at the hands of our adversaries " Saul and Jonathan 
 were lovely and pleasant in their lives, and in their 
 deaths they were not divided." 
 
 The frantic applause with which this aspiration 
 was received, seemed to wind him up to a crowning 
 effort. In a torrent of rhetorical commonplaces, he 
 reminded his hearers of the faithful brethren who 
 had suffered martyrdom for conscience' sake in Queen 
 Mary's time. Had these men died in vain? Had 
 we forgotten Latimer's exhortation to his brother 
 martyr? Should we, their descendants, so demean 
 ourselves as to justify posterity in declaring that the 
 
 88
 
 A Passive Resister 
 
 martyrs of the twentieth century were unworthy of 
 their forefathers ? No ! ten thousand times no ! 
 True it was, alas ! that the dark days of persecution 
 had once more closed upon our native land, but now, 
 as in the sixteenth century, the darkness would pass 
 away. Standing before us on that platform, even as 
 three hundred years agone, Latimer was standing at 
 the stake in picturesque old Oxford town, he, our 
 pastor, could assure us that the light must once 
 again come back ; and even as Latimer at that 
 sublime moment, spoke to Bidley words of hope and 
 comfort, so would he, our pastor, speak the like words 
 to one, who had cheered and comforted him through- 
 out all his afflictions. Verily, he would cry aloud to 
 him " Be of good cheer, Brother Nangle ! We shall 
 this day light such a candle by God's grace in 
 England, as I trust shall never be put out." 
 
 Before the audience had time to give expression 
 to their feelings, a shrill, " Yea verily, brother ! " 
 sounded from the other end of the room ; and there 
 stood Brother Nangle, mounted upon the table, and 
 waving the yellow handkerchief like one possessed. 
 
 A dead silence followed, and every eye was 
 riveted upon the church-officer. Then, prompted 
 by the organ, the pent-up emotion broke forth like 
 the roar of a great sea 
 
 ' Oh God, our help in ages paat, 
 Our hope for years to come, 
 Our shelter from the stormy blast, 
 And our eternal home I " 
 
 8 9
 
 A Legal Practitioner 
 
 I heard no more than the first four lines. 
 'Where's the back door?" hissed Mr. Fairfield 
 in my ear, and I was seized in a grip which forced 
 me out of my chair. An instant later, we were out- 
 side, where a full moon was shining on the school- 
 room walls, and the host of yellow bills plastered 
 upon them Vote for Bellamy Orme / 
 
 " I'm glad you told him that you claimed descent 
 from the Pilgrim Fathers," said I, gratefully. " That 
 got us the tickets." But a snort of anger and con- 
 tempt was my companion's only answer. 
 
 Not one word did he utter until we were well on 
 our homeward journey. We had the railway carriage 
 to ourselves. 
 
 " And I suppose I'm a Nonconformist, if I'm any- 
 thing at all," he wailed, as soon as he had found his 
 tongue. 
 
 " Surely," I murmured, " a person of your an- 
 cestry ought to sympathize with these good folks. 
 Conscience, conscience, conscience ! " 
 
 Mr. Fairfield uttered another vehement snort 
 
 "Aren't they descendants of the Ironsides?" I 
 asked. 
 
 "That's just what I've been thinking. That's 
 what makes it so utterly incomprehensible. There's 
 not one single point of resemblance." 
 
 "Not even one? Did you notice how they 
 laughed at Brother Nangle's jokes ? " 
 
 "Ah! the rudimentary sense of humour, you 
 90
 
 A Passive Resister 
 
 mean. Yes, the Puritans certainly weren't very 
 nimble jokers : Oliver himself, was a bit of a buffoon." 
 
 " They've got a Milton, anyhow," said I, later on, 
 when my friend was lying back in his corner and 
 smiling over " The Better Way." 
 
 "It's a spirit-stirring poem, especially where it 
 hints that your little windbag had the refusal of the 
 Papal chair," sneered Mr. Fairfield. "And then 
 that rhyme to 'choose' in the chorus! That's a 
 sweet boon. The rack and the faggot are right 
 enough. They make one think of the Tower and 
 Smithfield, and sufferings for righteousness' sake 
 very stuff o' the conscience, in fact. But the noose ! 
 That suggests crime mere Newgate and Jack Shep- 
 pard. And, speaking of the conscience, isn't it a 
 terrible thing that a body of good folk like your 
 Nonconformists, should make the word stink, as they 
 have done over this education business ? " 
 
 "It's only the Passive Besisters. Lots of Dis- 
 senters hate the movement. Why, I know several 
 who simply loathe it. By-the-by, what made you 
 bolt off in such a rage just at that particular moment ? 
 We'd sat through plenty of stuff quite as bad." 
 
 "It was that hymn. I was brought up on Dr. 
 Watts, and we used to sing that hymn every Sunday 
 evening after family prayers. I hated it at the time, 
 because the prayers were so tedious, and they came 
 just before supper, but I've a sort of affection for it 
 now. I could have stood anything but that hymn." 
 
 91
 
 A Legal Practitioner 
 
 " I can make excuses for the pastor," he exclaimed, 
 after a long silence. " He's a nervy subject ; but that 
 Nangle, he's simply diabolical." 
 
 " I fancy Mr. Bellamy Orme's quite as much to 
 blame as Nangle for this imprisonment business." 
 
 " Herod and Pontius Pilate are agreed," said my 
 friend, solemnly ; and then, knowing that the allu- 
 sion must be incomprehensible to me, he burst forth 
 into poetry 
 
 " The Presbyter and Independent seed 
 Spring with broad blades, to make religion bleed; 
 Herod and Pontius Pilate are agreed." 
 
 " They say that Charles the First wrote that," he 
 explained. 
 
 92
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 MR. FAIRPIELD made it his business to procure a 
 copy of the next two issues of the Temsley Sentinel. 
 From the first of these, we learned that the Eev. 
 Saxon Dawes had made his appearance before the 
 justices, who, notwithstanding an eloquent harangue, 
 which filled several columns of the paper, had 
 sentenced him to two days' imprisonment. It further 
 appeared that upon the morrow, the reverend 
 gentleman, clad in the blood-red doctorial robes of 
 Rosherville, had made a triumphal progress to the 
 gaol, escorted by a vast concourse of Nonconformists 
 from all parts of the country, " many of whom were 
 in private carriages." There had, of course, been 
 plenty of speechifying on this occasion. The Sentinel, 
 which is a Radical organ, discussed the matter in 
 a leader, and assured its readers that the return of 
 Mr. Bellamy Orme was now so certain that the more 
 sporting members of the Church party, who earlier 
 in the contest, had betted six to one in favour of their 
 own candidate, were at last constrained to admit that 
 the odds had veered round in Mr. Orme's favour, and 
 were hedging accordingly. 
 
 93
 
 A Legal Practitioner 
 
 Time, however, proved that the newspaper was 
 a false prophet; for Mr. Orme came out second at 
 the poll, by some two or three hundred votes. The 
 Sentinel of the Saturday following enlarged upon the 
 greatness of his moral victory, and was eloquent 
 upon the subject of his moral virtues, but it went 
 on to rebuke him with some acerbity, because, in 
 seconding the usual vote of thanks to the returning 
 officer, he had described his successful opponent as 
 a thundering good chap, and had congratulated the 
 electors upon their wisdom in having given him a 
 majority. A speech of this character was, as the 
 editor pointed out, a matter for regret, as it justified an 
 inference that, in the speaker's opinion, politics were 
 a mere game, and thereby gave offence to people, who 
 took a serious view of their electoral responsibilities. 
 
 Mr. Bellamy Orme is a member of the club to 
 which I belong, and for a good many years past 
 I have been on easy terms with him. A claim arising 
 out of a certain bijou residence upon the Upper 
 Thames, was the means of bringing us together in 
 the first instance. My client was the creditor, and 
 it was my painful duty to apply to Mr. Orme for 
 payment of the account. When, at his request, I 
 called on him at the Temple to discuss the matter 
 he made merry over the excellent defence, which the 
 law afforded him, but he followed this up by an offer 
 to liquidate the debt by instalments ; and, to do him 
 justice, all the instalments were duly paid. 
 
 94
 
 A Passive Resister 
 
 "So you didn't quite pull it off," I said, when, 
 a few weeks after the election, I found myself alone 
 with him in the little smoking-room. 
 
 Bellamy Orme laughed, and fired off a few easy 
 curses at the party organization and the electors' 
 broken promises ; and he vowed that nothing would 
 prevail upon him to go through the wear and tear 01 
 another contest. 
 
 "I heard something about it from a client of 
 mine, Dr. Saxon Dawes," said I. 
 
 " Oh yes, the little bounder who went to prison for 
 conscience' sake. That was a clinking good bit of 
 business, though I was beaten." 
 
 " He worked for you, too ; didn't he ? A very 
 fine speaker, I'm told. In fact, I've heard him. ' 
 
 "Nineteen to the dozen; if not more. But it 
 isn't cackle of that sort which wins elections." 
 
 " I know another of your workers Brother 
 Nangle." 
 
 The learned counsel burst into a roar of laughter. 
 " He's a sly old rat I I admit he's a rum 'un to look 
 at I'm not partial myself to sky-blue neckties, or 
 scent, either but, as a helper, he's worth a dozen of 
 your dissenting minister. He and I came to an under- 
 standing months ago. By-the-by, wasn't it you who 
 refused to draw that bill of sale? I remember; I 
 remember ! Dawes insisted on going to you ; so 
 Nangle went with him to see that you didn't corrupt 
 his mind." 
 
 95
 
 A Legal Practitioner 
 
 "I guessed what had happened! Who did draw 
 the thing, after all ? " 
 
 "Those people who act for all the Passive 
 Kesisters Higgenson and something. They've 6 ot 
 some funds behind them." 
 
 " Higgenson and Flint : I know them. I suppose 
 you heard that I didn't get on well with Brother 
 Nangle?" 
 
 " I got on first-rate. We came to terms in no 
 time. He'd got a little axe to grind in the way of 
 his business. As soon as that was arranged, we 
 were like brothers. We used to talk like it too 
 Nonconformist brothers, I mean." 
 
 "What is he?" 
 
 " Oh, he runs two or three furniture shops. He 
 sells rotten stuff to young couples, on the hire 
 system. You know the sort of thing: Walk up! 
 walk up, ladies and gentlemen ! Buy what you want, 
 and pay when you dam' please ! That's his line." 
 
 " And did you have to walk up ? " 
 
 Orme's answer to this suggestion was a grin, 
 and a humorous malediction upon his brother's eyes. 
 
 " But surely some one had to walk up." 
 
 " What he was after, was an introduction to my 
 old friend Tony Aston. He was just taking on the 
 management of the Snapdragon theatre. Nangle 
 wanted an order for stage furniture, or something 
 of that kind decorations, perhaps." 
 
 " Did he get any good out of it ? " 
 96
 
 The man's gross person rumbled with merriment. 
 "Not a ha'porth. But I was bound to see that 
 he came to no harm. I know friend Tony's little 
 ways. Nangle's as sharp as a razor in his own 
 line, but he doesn't understand actors. He'd have 
 been had in no time." 
 
 " That wouldn't have done at all, before the 
 election." 
 
 " Of course it wouldn't. So I made Tony under- 
 stand how matters stood, and he swore he wouldn't 
 play any tricks. And he promised to take Brother 
 Nangle ' behind.' I knew that 'ud suit him down to 
 the ground. Ha, ha, ha ! " 
 
 " But why was Nangle worth all that trouble ? " 
 
 "He's got the sixty or seventy votes of the 
 P.S.A. men in his pocket. He runs that show all 
 by himself at Temsley, and he spends a pretty 
 penny over it. The men vote just as he tells 'em. 
 He wanted me to drop in on the Sunday before 
 the election. Not to talk politics oh dear no ! 
 Just to have a friendly chat with the honest toilers ! " 
 
 " Did you go ? " 
 
 " I'd other fish to fry that afternoon. ' No, no, 
 Brother Nangle,' said I, 'Six days shalt thou labour 
 and do all that thou hast to do.' " 
 
 " Have they got another Bible yet ? " 
 
 "When I asked this question, Orme was standing 
 upon the rug, adjusting a very crumpled white tie 
 in the looking-glass. 
 
 97 H
 
 A Legal Practitioner 
 
 " Do you know that yarn ! " he exclaimed, wheel- 
 ing round in astonishment. "Surely it hasn't 
 travelled up to London ? " 
 
 " That was Nangle's fake," he explained, with a 
 chuckle, that ended in a yawn. "He's the tenant 
 of the P.S.A. room ; and, of course, he made the 
 authorities distrain for the rate ; one and threepence 
 was the amount. Well, he gets the place all ready 
 for them by clearing every blessed stick out of it, 
 except that Bible. They couldn't help seizing it 
 there wasn't anything else. And as soon as it's sold, 
 he raises the devil's own dust about the sacrilege 
 they've committed. And the way he made the fur 
 fly, about that outrage upon Christian people's feel- 
 ings, was enough to make a cat laugh. He worked 
 the oracle over and over again. And his little pastor 
 wasn't far behind him." 
 
 "Did he know how the thing had been engi- 
 neered ? " 
 
 "I suppose he took Nangle's version. But did 
 you ever come across a minister, or a parson either, 
 for that matter, who couldn't believe anything he 
 wanted to ? " 
 
 " It's getting near my bedtime," said I, rising. 
 " I wish I was going to bed too," grumbled Tony 
 Aston's old friend, as he stretched himself and 
 yawned, till his great jowl hid the crumpled necktie ; 
 "but there's no bed for me, yet awhile. I'm going 
 to the Owlets' ; it's their house-supper to-night. I'm 
 
 98
 
 A Passive Resister 
 
 in the chair, worse luck ! What a roasting they're 
 giving me over that election 1 " he went on, between 
 his yawns. " Teddy Beagle's got a song about it : 
 he's one of the corner-men there 
 
 1 What an enormity I 
 Bellamy Orme-ity 
 Learning the letters, that spell Nonconformity I ' 
 
 Damned smart ; isn't it ? Good night ! " 
 
 The next time that I met the unsuccessful candi- 
 date was some few months later. I was passing 
 through the Temple on my way to the Embankment, 
 one afternoon near the middle of the Long Vacation, 
 when I came upon him hard by the fountain. He 
 was smoking a cigar and watching the birds frolic in 
 the spray. In loud tweeds and panama hat, he 
 looked as he stood there, with the Bun shining full 
 upon his great red face, more like an elderly comic 
 actor or sporting publican than one of his Majesty's 
 counsel learned in the law. He happened to catch 
 sight of me, and he promptly rent the air with a 
 genial bellow of my name. 
 
 "Well; Brother Nangle's done it at last," he 
 said laughing, as I walked up to him. 
 
 "What's he done?" 
 
 " Haven't you seen the report ? " 
 
 "I've been out of town; I haven't looked at the 
 newspaper much." 
 
 "He was up at Bow Street for forgery, two or 
 three days ago. They caught him on board ship 
 
 99
 
 A Legal Practitioner 
 
 at Southampton, just as he was slipping away 
 just as he thought he was safe ! " 
 
 Here Orme had to break off to enjoy the full 
 comicality of Brother Nangle's disappointment and 
 surprise. 
 
 "I don't know whether he was in disguise," he 
 went on, after a low rumbling laugh. "Nangle got 
 up in a white beard and green spectacles would 
 be a sight worth seeing. By-the-by, he forgot he 
 was a Passive Kesister. The old sportsman fought 
 like a tiger when the detective tapped him on the 
 shoulder." 
 
 " Is it a clear case ? " I asked. 
 
 "Clear as daylight; and the best of the joke 
 is, he had the audacity to send to me as soon as 
 he was brought back to town. 'Would I have the 
 great kindness to come and see him, as soon as 
 possible ? ' " 
 
 " Perhaps he wanted you to defend him." 
 
 "I've no doubt he did and as a friend, too," 
 sneered the learned gentleman, tapping his nose. 
 " ' No, no, Brother Nangle,' thought I, ' the labourer 
 is worthy of his hire.' So I sent back a message that 
 he'd better consult his solicitor. How the constable 
 did roar when I told him what to say ! " 
 
 " I wonder he understood the joke."' 
 
 " He knew as well as I did that Nangle wouldn't 
 be able to find a solicitor. He's got no money, you 
 see. The police got hold of all he had about him at 
 
 100
 
 A Passive Resister 
 
 Southampton, and solicitors don't give credit to 
 bankrupts at least my clients don't. Ha-ha-ha ! " 
 
 " When was he made bankrupt ? " 
 
 " That was weeks ago. I wondered what was up, 
 when my clerk told me he'd been inquiring for me, 
 just before the vacation. ' Find out what he wants/ 
 I said. He came again, but nothing could be got 
 out of him ; so he didn't get at me. What he wanted 
 was to borrow money, I'll be bound." 
 
 The humour of the suggestion was so patent, and 
 Orme's appreciation of it was so keen, that I could not 
 help joining in his merriment. 
 
 " Damned good ; wasn't it ? " he went on, not in 
 the least offended. "Well, he gave that up, and I 
 heard nothing more of him till I got his message 
 from the gaol last Friday. It was then I heard of 
 his bankruptcy the constable told me. And he told 
 me a few other little things about him : very interest- 
 ing little things. I dare say some of 'em are public 
 property by now. I wonder what the people at that 
 chapel think of Brother Nangle." 
 
 " Well, they can hardly say that he's in prison as 
 a martyr." 
 
 " You wouldn't feel so sure of that, if you'd seen 
 as much of them as I have. It's my belief they've 
 come to the conclusion that he did it all for conscience' 
 sake, or else they're swearing that he's the victim of 
 a conspiracy on the part of the bishops." 
 
 "No, nol they're a business community. They 
 101
 
 A Legal Practitioner 
 
 won't be making a martyr of Brother Nangle," said 
 I, turning off to pursue my way. 
 
 I did not give a thought to the bill of sale that 
 afternoon, though my mind ran a good deal on 
 Brother Nangle's fall. Next day, however, it rushed to 
 my memory when the Kev. Saxon appeared in Gray's 
 Inn with woe and consternation written upon his face. 
 
 There is little doing in my business during the 
 Long Vacation, and when he arrived my clerks had 
 all gone. I answered the knock myselt 
 
 " Have you heard the news about Mr. Nangle ? " 
 he gasped, as soon as he saw me. He had not crossed 
 the threshold or shaken hands. 
 
 "Yes; I heard it yesterday afternoon." 
 
 " There's a man in possession in my house." 
 
 " Come in, and tell me all about it." 
 
 As soon as we were inside and he had taken a 
 chair, I could see that he was making a great effort 
 to calm himself. 
 
 "I've been away on the Continent for six weeks," 
 he began, as he wiped his forehead. "My throat 
 was troublesome and the doctor ordered me away. 
 I heard of the bankruptcy when I was at Lucerne. 
 I needn't say how much it grieved me. I was at 
 Antwerp on my way home, the day before yesterday, 
 when I got a telegram from my housekeeper to come 
 back at once. I got home early this morning, and I 
 found a man in possession. He was asleep in my 
 bed r" 
 
 102
 
 A Passive Resister 
 
 The reverend gentleman was so moved when he 
 mentioned this indignity that he came to a standstill. 
 I saw his lips quiver. 
 
 " Never mind the details," I said snappishly. I 
 thought that a little irritability might steady him 
 and avert a breakdown. 
 
 The poor little man gulped; and he begged my 
 pardon so humbly that I could hardly forbear to beg 
 his. It was some moments before he could resume 
 his parable. 
 
 " When I asked the man what he was doing in 
 my house, he said he represented Mr. Nangle's trustee 
 in bankruptcy " 
 
 "Let me ask you a few questions," I broke in. 
 " Did you execute that bill of sale, after all ? " 
 
 " Yes I did." 
 
 "ToNangle?" 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 " Did you have a copy of it ? " 
 
 "No!" 
 
 " Do you remember what it contained ? " 
 
 " Not a word." 
 
 " Did any money pass ? " 
 
 " No ! " 
 
 " Who is the trustee's solicitor ? " I asked, after 
 thinking the matter over. 
 
 " I don't know." 
 
 " Then we can't do anything to-day. It's too late 
 to search at the Bankruptcy Court. If you come here 
 
 103
 
 A Legal Practitioner 
 
 to-morrow, I shall know something by then, and we 
 can consider what is to be done." 
 
 " But what am I to do in the meanwhile ? " he 
 asked very miserably. " I don't want to go home, 
 with that man there," 
 
 "I'm not fit to be seen anywhere," he went on; 
 " I'm quite ashamed to be about like this ; but what 
 could I do ? ' 
 
 His appearance was, certainly, not a little disre- 
 putable for a Dissenting minister. He was in tweeds 
 and a dark flannel shirt, for one thing, and his collar 
 and white tie were ignominiously unclean. And, apart 
 from his raiment, he looked very unlike his usual self. 
 His hair was in disorder, and his woe-begone coun- 
 tenance was bilious and sallow. It showed, too, a 
 ripe growth of sandy stubble. 
 
 " I left Antwerp in a hurry," he explained. " I'd 
 come on from Brussels ; and when I got to the hotel, 
 I found the telegram. I'd only just time to catch the 
 boat to Harwich. We had a terrible passage after we 
 got out of the Scheldt. I don't think I ever spent 
 such a trying night." 
 
 "I suppose you were too much taken aback, to 
 refit at home," I remarked. 
 
 " I ought to have tidied up a bit, but I was so upset 
 when I found I couldn't change my clothes, that I 
 forgot all about it. I rushed up to town without 
 giving it a thought." 
 
 The reverend gentleman said this shamefacedly, 
 104
 
 A Passive Resister 
 
 and as he spoke, he made a vain attempt to comb back 
 his hair with his fingers. 
 
 " But why couldn't you change your clothes ? " 
 
 This question seemed to strike a tender chord in 
 my poor client's bosom. He had to give another 
 gulp before he could answer it. 
 
 " Well, you see, the man was in possession of all 
 the things in my bedroom." 
 
 " But hadn't you your luggage with you ? " 
 
 " He wasn't sure that I was entitled to use the 
 things in my portmanteau." 
 
 I knew next to nothing of the powers and duties 
 of the trustee's agent ; but this struck me as being 
 something quite out of the common. 
 
 " But did he claim your portmanteau ? " I asked, 
 in astonishment. 
 
 " He was very nice about it. He said he only 
 wanted to do his duty, and he was sure I didn't wish 
 him to do otherwise. Well, I couldn't gainsay that 
 could I?" 
 
 " I wonder you didn't change your clothes without 
 saying anything to him." 
 
 " But he was in my bedroom. I let myself into 
 the house with my latchkey, and it was only when I 
 got upstairs that I knew the man was there at all. It 
 did give me a shock." 
 
 " So it was he, who told you what had happened." 
 
 " Yes ; he told me. And when I said I must go 
 to town as soon as I had changed my clothes, he said 
 
 105
 
 A Legal Practitioner 
 
 he was afraid he mustn't let me take anything out of 
 the house. He said, over and over again, how very 
 sorry he was, and that he hoped I shouldn't try to 
 make him strain his conscience. Of course, I said I 
 wouldn't do that, on any account." 
 
 " Queer talk for a bailiff ! " thought I. 
 " Then the question arose as to my portmanteau. 
 I had carried it up with me, you see. I asked if I 
 might treat that as my own." 
 "What did he say?" 
 
 " He wasn't quite sure. He said the point was a 
 new one in his experience, and he wished he had his 
 book to refer to. Unfortunately he hadn't brought it 
 with him. He seemed quite surprised that I hadn't 
 got it." 
 
 " What was the book ? " I asked, still very much 
 puzzled. 
 
 " I think he called it 'Coke upon the Constitu- 
 tion.' He said it was the book all sheriff's officers 
 swore by." 
 
 " But if the point was doubtful, why shouldn't you 
 have the benefit of the doubt ? " 
 
 " The way he put it was this. If my portmanteau 
 belonged to the trustee in bankruptcy, it stood to 
 reason that I shouldn't like to be treating it as mine. 
 It makes you hesitate when a man talks like that. 
 It was, he said, a matter of conscience, and he must 
 leave me to decide it." 
 
 " Conscience again ! " thought I. 
 106
 
 A Passive Resister 
 
 " Well, the end of it was, while I was hesitating, 
 he said he saw I wished him to take charge until the 
 Court had tried the question, and decided whether the 
 clothes belonged to me or the trustee, and that in 
 the mean time, he would be happy to hold the port- 
 manteau as stakeholder, and without prejudice to any 
 question. Then he sat down on it, and I didn't care 
 to argue with him. The truth is, I didn't like to stay 
 any longer. He was in his nightshirt, and I fancied 
 he was a little uncomfortable on that account." 
 
 " Strange proceedings," said I, sorely tempted to 
 laugh. 
 
 " But I'm sure he's a good man," continued the 
 minister. " He said that if it was my custom to have 
 family prayer, he would ask leave to be present, if 
 I could wait until he had dressed himself and made 
 his private devotions. And, as I went downstairs, 
 I heard him singing a hymn." 
 
 " But, if you hurried up to town, how was it you 
 didn't get here till four o'clock in the afternoon ? " 
 
 " I wanted to see the solicitors who prepared the 
 bill of sale," he answered, with a blush. " I had to 
 wait more than two hours before I could see any one 
 in authority." 
 
 " Was he able to give you any comfort ? " 
 
 " All he would say was that it was a very painful 
 case of misplaced confidence, and that he was afraid 
 I must buy the goods in. But, you see, I couldn't 
 raise the value of my furniture at any time, and just 
 
 107
 
 A Legal Practitioner 
 
 at present I'm particularly short. The holiday has 
 cost so much. But when I told him I hadn't the 
 money, he only said that in that case, no doubt my 
 flock would help me." 
 
 " And will they, if the worst comes to the worst ? " 
 
 Here I had evidently touched another tender chord ; 
 for the Eev. Saxon made no answer, and, once again, 
 I noticed a suspicious trembling of his lips. 
 
 " I don't think I can rely upon that," he said at 
 length. " The truth is, Mr. Nangle owes money to 
 a good many of them, and they're quite inveterate 
 against him. I'm very much afraid they're inclined 
 to blame me too, because there was such a close 
 friendship between us. That's very unjust." 
 
 As he said this he turned his head away; and 
 though I pretended to busy myself with some papers, 
 I saw him produce a grimy handkerchief and wipe 
 his eyes. 
 
 " But how can you be sure of that ? " I asked, in 
 a matter-of-fact way, as soon as I thought it safe to 
 question him. "Did you meet any of them this 
 morning ? " 
 
 " No ; but I had some very painful letters while 
 I was in Switzerland. I'm afraid there's quite a 
 bitter feeling against me in Temsley, just now." 
 
 When I recalled that enraptured gathering of a 
 few months before, I could understand how terrible 
 this change of attitude must seem to a man of his 
 temperament. 
 
 1 08
 
 A Passive Resister 
 
 " That's so unjust that it will wear off in no time," 
 said I. "Why, this unpleasant business about the 
 bill of sale will have one good result. It will show 
 them that you're a sufferer too." 
 
 This attempt at consolation proved a failure. 
 " I'm afraid they'll only say it serves me right for 
 making so much of him," he answered. " But I must 
 try and live it down. It would be such a grief to me 
 to have to make a change. I've done my best there 
 for nearly seven years now ; and everything was so 
 pleasant until this happened." 
 
 " Look here ! " I decided. " You must go to an 
 hotel for to-night ; you certainly can't go home. You 
 must get a few things to go on with, and then you'll 
 be all right. In years to come you'll laugh over the 
 little difficulty you're in now." 
 
 " I don't want to go home if I can help it," he 
 answered, with some hesitation; "but the truth is 
 I've got no money. I ran short at Brussels. There 
 was a post-office order to come to me at Antwerp, but 
 it hadn't arrived when I got to the hotel. I'd barely 
 enough money to pay my fare home. At the present 
 moment I've only got threepence." 
 
 I thought it well to receive this as a good joke. 
 Fortunately, such loose money as I had about me was 
 more than sufficient for his needs. 
 
 " Gome here at about twelve to-morrow," I said, as 
 I let him out ; " and we'll see what can be done." 
 
 I noticed that he went downstairs bare-headed, 
 109
 
 A Legal Practitioner 
 
 and it struck me that, throughout our interview, I 
 had seen nothing of his hat. When I leaned out of 
 the window and saw him emerge from the doorway, I 
 understood why he had kept his head-gear in the 
 background. It was a small cloth cap. 
 
 no
 
 CHAPTEE IV 
 
 FOETUNATELY for me, old Peacock, my body-clerk and 
 factotum, was not out of town. I hustled him off the 
 first thing next morning, to search the register of 
 bills of sale, and ascertain who was the solicitor for 
 the trustee in Nangle's bankruptcy. He came back 
 with certain particulars, and with the information that 
 the trustee's solicitors were Messrs. Priestleys and 
 Carlyon, of the Old Vicarage House in the City. I 
 was glad to hear this ; for Carlyon, the senior partner, 
 had been an acquaintance of mine almost a friend, 
 in fact for five and twenty years, and I knew him 
 to be a straightforward and honourable man, albeit 
 not a little addicted to the pleasures of the table, and 
 somewhat lacking in refinement withal. 
 
 " Eing up Mr. Carlyon on the telephone," said I, 
 " and ask when he can see me. Tell him what it's 
 about." 
 
 Peacock came back in a few minutes, grinning 
 from ear to ear. This rather surprised me; for he 
 had listened with much sympathy to such particulars 
 of Dr. Dawes' predicament as I had thought fit to 
 give him. 
 
 in
 
 A Legal Practitioner 
 
 "What does he say?" I asked. 
 
 "Mr. Carlyon came to the telephone himself, sir, 
 and when I told him that you wanted to see him 
 about Dr. Dawes' bill of sale, I heard him laugh. 
 Mr. Carlyon has rather a loud laugh, sir." 
 
 " I know it a regular bellow." 
 
 "Well, he laughed a good deal, and then he 
 asked who I was. When I said ' Peacock,' he said 
 I was to tell you, with his compliments, that evil 
 communications corrupted good manners, and he 
 couldn't congratulate you on your client. Then he 
 said he should be in all the afternoon after half-past 
 two, and that when you came, you must be sure to 
 bring your hymn-book with you. He's a very 
 amusing gentleman, sir." 
 
 Peacock has known Carlyon for nearly as long as 
 I have, and he has a great admiration for him. He 
 also regards him as a prodigy of wit and humour. 
 
 " Then, sir, I ventured to say that I hoped he 
 would do what he could for the poor little gentleman, 
 as we were all very sorry for him. And then, sir 
 hee-hee-hee ! " 
 
 I had to wait till my henchman had finished his 
 laugh, before I was favoured with the witticism which 
 had provoked it. 
 
 "And then, sir, he pretended to think I was 
 crying, and he said I'd better cheer myself up by 
 going into the gardens and spreading my tail in the 
 Bun. 'The terrace is just the place for you this 
 
 112
 
 A Passive Resister 
 
 morning, Peacock,' says he. 'I wish I could come 
 and have a look at you.' Hee-hee-hee ! " 
 
 On the stroke of twelve, Dr. Dawes presented 
 himself. He still wore the tweed suit, but his body- 
 linen and little tie were of spotless whiteness, and 
 he somewhat ostentatiously displayed a clerical felt 
 hat. The bilious pallor of yesterday had all gone, 
 and though still overcast, his fresh-coloured face was 
 smooth and shining. 
 
 "You had a trying day yesterday," I remarked, 
 after I had told him of what Peacock had been doing. 
 " You look all the better for your night's rest." 
 
 "I didn't tell you of where I'd been before I came 
 here," he answered. "I was very anxious to see 
 Mr. Orme ; so I went on to the Temple after I left 
 Messrs. Higgenson and Flint." 
 
 "Mr. Orme!" I repeated, wondering what my 
 client could have wanted with him. 
 
 "I didn't tell you yesterday. I felt a little shy ; 
 but I think you ought to know everything. The 
 truth is, what upset me at home as much as any- 
 thing, was finding that the man there, claimed the 
 books in my study. He said they were all scheduled 
 to the bill of sale." 
 
 " Is there anything particularly valuable ? " 
 
 "There are a good many volumes of my ser- 
 mons," he answered, in all simplicity; "I have 
 them bound every half-year. But it wasn't them 
 I was thinking of so much. It was the manuscript 
 
 113 I
 
 A Legal Practitioner 
 
 of the second series of my ' Old Testament Heroes.' 
 When the man told me that that was included, I was 
 very much upset, especially as he wasn't sure that 
 he would be justified in letting me copy it before 
 everything was taken away to be sold. It did seem 
 so hard." 
 
 "But you were saying that you went to Mr. 
 Orme." 
 
 " Yes, I wanted to see him, because a long time 
 ago, I lent him a copy I'd had made, and he hadn't 
 returned it." 
 
 "And did you get it?" 
 
 "No; he's lost it." The bereaved author said 
 this with tears in his voice. 
 
 " I had to wait a long time for him. The house- 
 keeper said she didn't know when he'd be back, and 
 as she didn't ask me in, I had to wait on the stairs 
 till he came. It was a long wait." 
 
 "And I don't think he was very glad to see me," 
 continued the poor little man. "He was pleasant 
 enough at first, but he wasn't the same. And I 
 couldn't make him understand how important it was 
 that he should find the copy. I explained why I 
 wanted it so, and then he got quite irritable. I 
 didn't at all like some of the language he used. It 
 surprised me very much. He promised, at last, he'd 
 look for it and send it to me, but I don't believe he 
 will. To tell the truth, I couldn't help thinking he 
 only said it to get rid of me." There was real pathoa 
 
 114
 
 A Passive Resister 
 
 in my client's manner when he faltered out this 
 suspicion. 
 
 " I'll see what I can do with Mr. Orme, if there 
 really is any bother about your own manuscript," 
 said I. "Perhaps he'll pay more attention to a 
 solicitor. It was very wrong of him to be so off- 
 hand ; but, of course, he didn't fully understand how 
 much you'd had to upset you yesterday." 
 
 " I don't know what I should have done, if you 
 hadn't been so kind. And I found another friend 
 at the First Avenue that American gentleman you 
 introduced to me : Mr. Fairfield. He happened to 
 be staying there." 
 
 This was interesting. I wondered whether my 
 friend had thought it worth while to deal faithfully 
 with the reverend gentleman. 
 
 "He recognized me, and came up to ask if I 
 wasn't well]; I suppose I did look a little poorly. And 
 he was so kind that I told him what had happened. 
 We had a long talk while he smoked. I was so 
 pleased to see that he only drank soda-water, I 
 never met any one like him ; it was quite stimulating 
 to hear him talk of the persecutions we Nonconfor- 
 mists endured in the early days." 
 
 " I'm glad you came across him," said I, marvel- 
 ling greatly. 
 
 " He was very outspoken ; but I didn't mind that. 
 He actually told me that all the bother I was having 
 was nothing to complain about, if we Passive 
 
 "5
 
 A Legal Practitioner 
 
 Resistors meant what we said. Even when I told 
 him that a good deal of my furniture had been 
 bought when my wife and I set up house-keeping, 
 and that it had a special value in my eyes on that 
 account, he stuck to his opinion. But when I told 
 him about my book he was much more sympathetic. 
 He really got quite excited. He was different from 
 Mr. Orme. Later on, we had a regular argument 
 on Passive Eesistance. He doesn't sympathize with 
 it at all, though he admits that, so long as it really 
 is passive, there's something to be said for it. But 
 if, instead of letting our goods be taken, and stopping 
 at that, we make a noise about it, and yet take care 
 all the while, that the goods are only bought up to 
 be given back to us, so that we suffer nothing at all, 
 he declares it's a fraud and a sham. He put this so 
 politely that you couldn't take offence." 
 
 "Did you discuss the ethics of going to prison, 
 too ? " 
 
 " No, he said he'd rather not say what he thought 
 about that. Of course I knew what he meant. But 
 he did say that he didn't believe any one in a free 
 country could use the forms of the law, to defeat 
 the law, without soiling his fingers. He said there 
 were always plenty of pettifogging lawyers to egg 
 people on to do shabby things, when once that 
 game was on foot, and they were dangerous guides 
 for honest men. There is something in that; isn't 
 there?" 
 
 116
 
 A Passive Resister 
 
 It was painful to be called upon to confirm such 
 a gross aspersion upon a noble calling, and I made 
 a mental note to upbraid Mr. Fairfield when I next 
 saw him, but for the time being, I was content to 
 let the slur pass unchallenged. 
 
 " We had a little walk later on," continued the 
 minister, "and your friend showed me St. John's 
 Gate and the place where Hicks' Hall formerly 
 stood. I'm not sure I quite know what Hicks' Hall 
 was, but I found it very interesting. He seemed to 
 enjoy it so." 
 
 I was glad to hear of all this ; for I was beginning 
 to feel a genuine liking for my client, and I was 
 pleased to know that a better acquaintance had 
 removed Mr. Fairfield's first impression of him. 
 The descendant of the Pilgrim Fathers is not one 
 to argue with a man he despises, or to cast his 
 topographical pearls before swine. 
 
 " He's an interesting companion," I observed. 
 
 " He is indeed. On our way back to the hotel 
 he took me to Smithfield, and pointed out the spot 
 where the martyrs were burned. That was very 
 stimulating. It's wonderful what a memory he 
 has." 
 
 For some time after this the little pastor meditated 
 in silence. 
 
 " I want to tell you something," he said suddenly, 
 " I've come to the conclusion that there aren't many 
 of us, nowadays, who are fit to be martyrs ; we aren't 
 
 117
 
 A Legal Practitioner 
 
 made of the right stuff. I suppose we can't help 
 that; but then we oughtn't to talk as if we were 
 eager for the stake." 
 
 " Or as if we'd already been there," I hinted. 
 
 The Rev. Saxon Dawes blushed crimson. "I 
 mean to say a few words about this from the pulpit,' ' 
 he said. "I told your friend so last night, and he 
 said he'd come and hear me." 
 
 " Well ; this is a fair old beano ! " said Carlyon, 
 with one of his boisterous laughs, when he shook 
 hands with me that afternoon. 
 
 '"Then comes the reckoning, and they laugh no 
 more,' " was my answer. 
 
 "Have you the audacity to suggest that your 
 client means to fight ? " 
 
 "Have you the audacity to suggest that any 
 money passed when your bankrupt took that bill 
 of sale?" 
 
 " Do you know our bankrupt ? " 
 
 "Yes; I had him in my office when this very 
 bill of sale was in contemplation it's none of my 
 drawing, though and I've seen him since, and heard 
 a good deal about him, too." 
 
 " Ah ! as you know him, you'll be able to appre- 
 ciate what I'm going to tell you. He's ready to take 
 his oath that the money did pass." 
 
 I was wholly unprepared for this fresh instance of 
 Brother Nangle's villainy ; but I knew my opponent 
 
 118
 
 A Passive Resister 
 
 too well to doubt his veracity. My feelings found 
 vent in a whistle of astonishment. 
 
 " That man's a perfect devil," I ejaculated. 
 
 Carlyon had his laugh out before he answered. 
 " The truth is, Harris, the trustee, found that bill of 
 sale among Nangle's papers, but we hardly knew 
 what to make of it. It looked like a mere sham 
 a dirty trick for advertising the Passive Resistance 
 swindle, I'm not fond of Dissenters ; especially 
 ministers, and I was half-inclined to seize the furni- 
 ture and chance it. I thought it was ten to one that 
 a snivelling Passive Eesister wouldn't like to have 
 the whole thing ripped up before the Court ; and I 
 did long to have a go at him. The whole boiling of 
 'em ought to be whipped at the cart's tail. But you 
 mustn't let your feelings carry you away in business, 
 and as Nangle had disappeared, I thought I'd better 
 hold my hand. Then Providence came in to help us. 
 Nangle was arrested. We were able to get at him 
 then. It's a mighty convenient thing to have a 
 bankrupt in chokee you can always get hold of 
 him. It's where all bankrupts ought to be, for that 
 matter." 
 
 " Most of them, anyhow," said I, " but this one 
 ought to be broken on the wheel." 
 
 "Well, I sent Harris down to him to make 
 inquiries about this bill of sale ; and the poor captive 
 said that, though he, himself, had never meant to 
 enforce it against your client, he must, in justice to 
 
 119
 
 A Legal Practitioner 
 
 his creditors, admit that he had paid Dawes two 
 hundred pounds." 
 
 "But, why on earth did the man go out of his 
 way to lie like that ? " 
 
 My opponent winked his eye. "I don't know 
 what Harris said to him, and of course I'm bound to 
 accept Harris's story; hut I did fancy that Nangle 
 was a little anxious to obtain legal assistance, and he 
 may have thought that Harris could give him a 
 leg up." 
 
 " It's a vile, dirty business for you to mix your- 
 self up with," I said reproachfully. 
 
 " We musn't be unjust to poor Nangle. It's only 
 fair to tell you that, just before his smash, he made 
 several attempts to raise money on that bill of sale. 
 That looks as if he thought it was a genuine docu- 
 mentdoesn't it ? " 
 
 Carlyon said this as if he were making a hand- 
 some admission in Nangle's favour, and then burst 
 into another great laugh, 
 
 " And, wouldn't any [one take the security?" I 
 asked. 
 
 " They wouldn't look at it when they found that 
 the other party was a Dissenting minister. They 
 knew the thing was no good." 
 
 " Yes, and you know it too. Come, come, Carlyon ! 
 isn't this a little too bad? " 
 
 " If Dissenting ministers play at bowls with the 
 law, they must look out for rubbers," was his retort. 
 
 120
 
 A Passive Resister 
 
 "I don't often have to put a man in possession. 
 That sort of thing isn't in my line. It's a nasty 
 business to break up a man's home ; but I was only 
 too delighted to give your client a shake-up. I've 
 heard all about him little beast ! " 
 
 "If you knew him, you'd be sorry for him. 
 You've nearly broken his heart. And, by-the-by, 
 do you know the man you've put in? I've heard 
 some odd things about him." 
 
 " So he's been up to some of his larks ; has he ? " 
 said Carlyon, rubbing his hands. 
 
 " You do know him, then ? " 
 
 " I know him right enough. He came here as a 
 boy five-and-twenty years ago. He worked his way 
 up a bit, and then he left us to go to an auctioneer. 
 He's an entertainer too sings comic songs at the 
 music halls, and does conjuring tricks. I'm afraid 
 he's not much good at anything else, but he's devilish 
 good at that. He always comes down to our children's 
 parties. I thought he'd have a game with your 
 client. He'll have a good yarn out of this." 
 
 " I say ! " he went on, as if struck by a sudden 
 thought, " are you busy this afternoon? " 
 
 "Not at all." 
 
 "Then you shall see him for yourself. Why 
 shouldn't we have a joke in the Vacation ? He came 
 just before you did, so I said he must wait. We'll have 
 him up. You won't tell tales out of school. Send 
 Eagles up I " he bellowed down a speaking-tube. 
 
 121
 
 A Legal Practitioner 
 
 Mr. Eagles proved to be a little man, with a 
 diffident manner and twinkling black eyes. 
 
 "Taking an afternoon off, Tommy?" was Carl- 
 yon's greeting to his former clerk. 
 
 " I've left a relief in charge, sir. I had to come 
 to town, and I thought you might like to see me." 
 
 " Getting on all right at Temsley ? " 
 
 Eagles hesitated, and looked at me and then at 
 his patron. 
 
 " It's all right, Tommy ; go ahead ! " said Carlyon, 
 with a nod. 
 
 The man recognized this as an invitation to 
 entertain us, and he responded, nothing loth. 
 
 He began his narrative with a shyness that was 
 purely histrionic, but before the account of his re- 
 ception at my client's house had fairly opened, he 
 had thrown off all pretence of diffidence and the story 
 had become a drama. The housekeeper " a bit of 
 a geyser, sir " had opened the door to him ; and by 
 the time she had ascertained his business, and in the 
 first flush of indignation had called in a policeman 
 to eject " the low man," she stood before us in the 
 person of Mr. Eagles, a veritable creature of flesh 
 and blood. Even the policeman was a living reality. 
 This pillar of the law made his exit, after pronouncing 
 a considered opinion that the case was one for the 
 County Court. 
 
 I kept my merriment within bounds ; but Carlyon, 
 who is a big, stout man, well over sixty, behaved 
 
 122
 
 A Passive Resister 
 
 himself like a child at the pantomine. I could see 
 that he looked upon Mr. Eagles as his private jester, 
 and took no little pride in his retainer's accomplish- 
 ments. 
 
 " There seemed just a chance he'd come home 
 early in the morning," said the man, a little later in 
 his entertainment; "so I thought I'd sleep in his 
 bed :to be ready for him, in case he did. And the 
 wheeze came off to rights ! I was woke up by a 
 noise on the stairs ; and the next moment the door 
 bursts open, and he nearly falls in with his portman- 
 teau on his shoulder ! When he catches sight of me 
 in his bed " 
 
 There was no need to describe how my poor client 
 looked at that trying moment ; for he stood before 
 us, bent double under an imaginary load, and fairly 
 petrified with astonishment and alarm. 
 
 " I know how to talk to a Dissenting minister 
 I was brought up among 'em and I didn't forget he 
 was a Passive Eesister," explained Mr. Eagles, with 
 a confidential wink, as soon as he had become him- 
 self again, and had opened fire upon the reverend 
 gentleman. 
 
 "What's he like?" asked Carlyon, mopping his 
 eyes and shaking all over. 
 
 " He's a sandy little gentleman, sir, with goggly 
 eyes. And oh, I forgot that ! he was in an awful 
 state ; I don't believe he'd had a wink of sleep, and 
 I'm sure he'd been sick. I know that passage. I've 
 
 123
 
 A Legal Practitioner 
 
 done many a turn in Antwerp, at the Peter Paul. 
 And he wasn't dressed like a minister, except for his 
 tie, and I think he'd been laying with that and his 
 collar pressed up against something smoky and a bit 
 greasy. I never saw such a figure." 
 
 I will not give particulars of the conversation in 
 which Eagles explained his presence in the other's 
 bedroom, and deplored the hardness of a calling, 
 which forced such a painful duty upon a man of his 
 delicate sensibilities ; nor will I repeat the dialogue 
 which ended in the capture of the portmanteau. 
 " When I saw what he looked like, sir, it seemed a 
 sin to let him change his clothes," was the jester's 
 apology for this outrage. 
 
 But there was no resisting the low humour of the 
 performance ; and when, to illustrate how he had 
 carried his point, Eagles dropped down upon a deed- 
 box, and with an expression upon his face, which 
 defies description, made play to conceal his shanks 
 by manipulating a nightshirt much too short for the 
 purpose, I laughed and laughed again, and Carlyon's 
 bellowings must have been audible half a mile away. 
 
 " I think you might have let him change his 
 clothes, when you'd had your joke," I protested, with 
 as much gravity as I could summon up. 
 
 " Well, I was a bit sorry, sir, myself, when he'd 
 left the house. I told him, you know, that he ought 
 to look upon me as a sort of guest the stranger 
 within his gates and he said, oh yes ; he quite 
 
 124
 
 A Passive Resister 
 
 understood that. And a few minutes after he'd gone 
 downstairs, he came flying back to say that he hoped 
 I got my meals comfortably. He didn't come in 
 out of delicacy. He opened the door just about an 
 inch or so. And when I thanked him, and said 
 something pretty about Elijah and the ravens, he 
 said he'd asked his housekeeper to look after me. 
 The next minute I heard the street door bang behind 
 him." 
 
 " He hoped you got your meals comfortably ! " 
 chuckled Carlyon, who, just then, was drinking tea 
 and eating sweet biscuits by great handfuls. " What 
 had he to do with your meals ? Ho-ho-ho 1 " 
 
 But though his laugh was contemptuous, I could 
 see that the little pastor's apostolic conduct had 
 made an impression on him. 
 
 " Surely you might leave the poor man in posses- 
 sion of his goods until I've decided what to do. 
 You've had a good deal of fun out of him," said I. 
 
 "Will you give your personal undertaking that 
 nothing shall go out of the house in the mean time ? " 
 
 "Certainly wearing apparel always excepted. 
 He must have the use of his wardrobe. You can't 
 be entitled to all of it, whatever may be down in 
 Higgenson and Flint's schedule." 
 
 "You can take your man out, Tommy," said the 
 lord to his vassal. " Let him have a wire. What 
 are the things worth ? You've gone over them, I 
 suppose what will they sell for, I mean ? " 
 
 125
 
 A Legal Practitioner 
 
 " A hundred pounds, sir, p'r'aps." 
 
 "Look here!" said Carlyon, when Eagles had 
 departed, " if you care to settle this, I'll take sixty 
 pounds and cry quits. I can get that sanctioned, 
 right enough. I'll give you four days to consider. I 
 wouldn't let your man off altogether, even if I could. 
 He must pay up or fight. It's a downright black- 
 guard business, this alienation of property to defeat 
 the rate." 
 
 " There I'm with you. Do you know Higgenson 
 and Flint?" 
 
 " Rather ! They're fair stinkers. They know 
 me, too ho-ho-ho ! I hoped they'd be coming here 
 as your client's solicitors." 
 
 " I've been wondering whether I can get at them 
 over these bills of sale. Peacock tells me they've 
 been registering them wholesale. Do you think it's 
 professional misconduct ? What's the Law Society's 
 view?" 
 
 Carlyon screwed up his mouth. "Thank God, 
 I'm not on the Committee," said he. 
 
 " But you're on the Council. May I take it that 
 you'll do what you can to make the Committee con- 
 sider such a case, if I get it put forward ? " 
 
 " Oh yes ! Oh, certainly ! " he answered, as he 
 shook hands. " I'd do it even if they were friends of 
 mine ; it ought to be stopped, if only for the credit 
 of the profession." 
 
 126
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 " No," said the Eev. Saxon, when the legal position 
 had been explained to him, " if I've acknowledged the 
 receipt of the money, I must put up with the conse- 
 quences." 
 
 " But you didn't know when you signed the bill 
 of sale that the acknowledgment was in it," I urged. 
 
 " Ought I to have signed it without knowing ? " 
 
 " You certainly ought not." 
 
 " I hope I've satisfied you that I didn't know. I 
 shouldn't like you to think I would knowingly sub- 
 scribe to anything that wasn't true." 
 
 " I'm quite satisfied on the point ; and if you'll 
 allow me to say so, it would never occur to me to 
 doubt your word about anything." 
 
 " You're very, very good to me," he said, beam- 
 ingly, but a moment later he was wrapped in gloom. 
 
 " It's dreadful, dreadful!" he murmured. " I can't 
 keep my thoughts off it. It seems too dreadful to 
 be true ! " 
 
 I knew that he was referring to Nangle's false- 
 hood. He had been struck dumb on hearing of it ; 
 but even after the first shock of surprise had worn 
 
 127
 
 A Legal Practitioner 
 
 off, and he fully understood how basely he had been 
 treated, he did not utter a word of complaint. He 
 seemed to give no thought to the wrong inflicted 
 upon himself. " Oh dear ! oh dear ! I hope I shall 
 never have to see him again," burst from him several 
 times ; but this only meant that a meeting with one 
 whom he had loved and honoured, and who had 
 proved to be so unworthy, would be more than he 
 could bear. 
 
 "It seems too dreadful to be true," he said 
 again. 
 
 " Have you quite made up your mind not to con- 
 test the trustee's claim ? " I asked. 
 
 " Oh, quite ; but how I am to scrape together the 
 sixty pounds, I don't quite know." 
 
 " If the worst comes to the worst, you can give 
 another bill of sale. I'll think the matter over. You 
 keep your mind off it until you hear from me. I'll 
 let Mr. Carlyon know that we accept his offer, and 
 I'm sure he'll make things easy for us as regards 
 payment. He won't expect the money within four 
 days. You go home, and try to forget all about it 
 for the present." 
 
 On my return from Carlyon's office, I had found 
 the reverend gentleman waiting for me at Gray's Inn. 
 He was so amazed to hear that I had been able to 
 arrange for the immediate withdrawal of the man in 
 possession, that he was disposed to regard me as 
 a sort of legal magician; and when, in answer to 
 
 128
 
 A Passive Resister 
 
 his questions, I had to explain that by giving the 
 undertaking, I had bound myself to make good any 
 injury, that a breach of it might occasion to the other 
 party, he was so touched at what he considered an 
 extraordinary proof of my confidence in him, that 
 I saw the tears come into his eyes. 
 
 " I shall be glad to have my house to myself 
 again," he said gleefully, as he bade me good-bye. 
 He seemed to have forgotten that the good people of 
 Temsley were inclined to treat him as a partner in 
 Brother Nangle's iniquities. 
 
 Next morning, I presented myself at the office of 
 Messrs. Higgenson and Flint,'in Serjeant's Inn, Fleet 
 Street, and craved audience of the senior partner. 
 The office boy's room was a gloomy little crib, that 
 looked out upon the patch of ground which was once 
 the garden of Sir Edward Coke. Above the mantel- 
 piece, "Thou God seest me" frowned down in huge 
 letters from an illuminated scroll. " If Carlyon saw 
 that, he'd swear it was put up to keep the child 
 from stealing the postage stamps," thought I. 
 
 Mr. Higgenson was a suave personage, with a 
 beard just turning grey, and a shaved upper lip. 
 Though I had merely sent in my name, I could see 
 that he knew on whose behalf I was there. The 
 man's manner was oily, but there was something in 
 it which showed that he was on the defensive, 
 
 "You know what has happened to Dr. Dawes ?" 
 was my opening. 
 
 129 K
 
 A Legal Practitioner 
 
 " Most distresing, most distressing ! The only 
 instance of the kind within my experience." 
 
 " He instructs me that when he saw you, the day 
 before yesterday, all you could tell him was that it 
 was a painful case of misplaced confidence, and 
 that unless he had the money to satisfy this bill 
 of sale, he must send round the hat for it. Is that 
 correct ? " 
 
 " Do you suggest that I could have said anything 
 else?" 
 
 Brother Higgenson was beginning to ruffle up his 
 feathers, and he answered me with some asperity. 
 
 " I don't think this will do at all," said I. 
 
 He stared at me, but said nothing. 
 
 "I understand you have funds behind you," I 
 went on. "I think it will be a bad thing for you and 
 your partner, if you haven't." 
 
 "I think your client is very ill-advised to send 
 you here to make threats," he snapped out, con- 
 temptuously. 
 
 " He doesn't know that I'm seeing you. I'm 
 acting on my own responsibility. Do you suggest 
 that this bill of sale was anything but a sham ? " 
 
 " I suggest nothing." 
 
 " I'm told that you have been registering these 
 things by the score, and that nearly all the grantors 
 are Dissenting ministers." 
 
 " And what then ? " he asked, still very con- 
 temptuous. 
 
 130
 
 A Passive Resister 
 
 "Isn't this sort of thing conspiracy at common 
 law ? You must have seen what Lord Lindley said 
 about the legal aspect of the movement." 
 
 Mr. Higgenson laughed and turned up his nose. 
 "That doesn't frighten me," he said. "It's all 
 bosh for one thing; and I don't quite see how you 
 could put your own client into the dock." 
 
 "It had not occurred to me to attempt such a 
 thing." 
 
 " Then what can you do ? " 
 
 " Presumably, I can lay the matter before the Law 
 Society as professional misconduct." 
 
 Having fired this shot, I lay back in my chair 
 and gazed at the portrait of a comfortable-looking 
 divine, which hung over the fireplace: it was the 
 Rev. Thomas Binney. 
 
 " Bosh ! " said Mr. Higgenson, but I noticed a 
 slight change in his tone. 
 
 " By-the-by, do you know Mr. Carlyon Priestleys 
 and Carlyon ? " 
 
 Any impression, which I had made by my threat 
 of the Law Society, vanished at the mention of 
 Carlyon's name. It acted like a red rag upon a bull. 
 
 " I know him a foul-tongued, overbearing, 
 vulgar " 
 
 "Whatever he is, he's a member of the Council," 
 I shot in. 
 
 This was news to the wholesale dealer in bills of 
 sale, and his face showed that he did not relish it. 
 
 131
 
 A Legal Practitioner 
 
 " He acts for Harris, the trustee in Nangle's 
 bankruptcy," I continued. " He knows all about this 
 business. I was with him yesterday afternoon, and 
 he promised to give me his support if I went to the 
 Society." 
 
 " I spoke hastily just now," said my antagonist, in 
 some disorder ; " but whatever I may think of Mr. 
 Carlyon, I should be sorry to believe that he would 
 use his official position to gratify his private feelings." 
 Brother Higgenson was evidently coming round. He 
 spoke much more in sorrow than in anger. 
 
 " I'm sure he would do nothing of the kind, but I 
 know he has a very strong feeling against the whole 
 movement," said I. " You can judge as well as I can, 
 whether the Discipline Committee are likely to 
 share it." 
 
 "I can quite believe he wouldn't leave a stone 
 unturned to prejudice them." 
 
 " Do you think they'd want any prejudicing ? " 
 
 This question of mine was followed by an interval 
 of silence. Mr. Higgenson sat studying his blotting- 
 pad, while I feasted my eyes upon the placid effigy of 
 the Kev. Thomas Binney. 
 
 " Perhaps you would like to consult Mr. Flint/' I 
 suggested. 
 
 " My partner is unfortunately out of town." 
 
 "Sixty pounds will square this business. I 
 arranged that with Mr. Carlyon yesterday after- 
 noon." 
 
 132
 
 A Passive Resister 
 
 " Sixty pounds ! " repeated Mr. Higgenson. The 
 comparative smallnesa of the amount seemed to 
 comfort him. 
 
 I've been thinking," he observed, after another 
 silence, " that perhaps we ought to treat Dr. Dawes 
 as one of our wounded soldiers that his sufferings 
 in the cause deserve some special treatment. And if 
 sixty pounds " 
 
 " When will the money be forthcoming ? " I asked 
 briskly. 
 
 "I can get a cheque to-morrow, if my view is 
 shared by our committee." 
 
 " Then no doubt I shall hear from you before five 
 o'clock. Good morning !" 
 
 The office boy was reading when I emerged from 
 the passage into his dark den with its minatory text. 
 I took him by surprise, and he huddled the object of 
 his study into his pocket. But not before I had 
 caught a glimpse of the title. It was, " Sweeny Todd ; 
 or, The Demon Barber of Fleet Street." 
 
 I did not propose to communicate with my client 
 until after I had heard the decision of Brother 
 Higgenson's committee, whatever that body might 
 be ; but on my way up the Gray's Inn staircase, I 
 heard a bounding step behind me, and the next 
 moment the reverend gentleman was wringing my 
 hand with a fervour that astonished me. One had 
 only to look at his face, to see that he was brimming 
 over with happy excitement. 
 
 133
 
 A Legal Practitioner 
 
 " I was quite wrong about my people," he began, 
 without waiting until we had got into my room. " I 
 don't think I ever knew them so kind and sympathetic. 
 I hadn't been at home ten minutes before they began 
 to drop in, or send messages, to say how sorry they 
 were for me. And it did one's heart good to see how 
 they rejoiced to hear that the man in possession had 
 gone away. And would you believe it ? I've been 
 able to borrow the sixty pounds. That is such a 
 weight off my mind." 
 
 "I hoped to be able to write to you to-morrow 
 that I'd extorted the money " 
 
 " Oh, but I've got a cheque in my pocket," he 
 burst in; "a benevolent lady, who is a member of 
 my flock, insisted on my taking it." 
 
 There was a trace of self-consciousness in his 
 manner when he mentioned the lady, which set 
 my mind working, and I remembered that he 
 was a widower. But his next remark seemed to 
 negative the existence of any relations of a tender 
 character. 
 
 " She's an elderly widow lady. She won't hear of 
 my giving any security. I don't think I need press 
 the point ; she's very wealthy, and even if I don't 
 live to pay her back, there's my life policy as well as 
 the furniture, to fall back upon. Do you think I need 
 press it ? " 
 
 "Oh no ! But let me tell you what I've been 
 doing this morning." 
 
 '34
 
 A Passive Resister 
 
 He heard me out ; and then, after a few moments ' 
 reflection, he shook his head. 
 
 " I'd rather not take it," he said, with a rising 
 colour. " I won't give my reasons, though I dare say 
 you can guess them. No, I won't take it." 
 
 I felt that these reasons did him honour; and 
 though he added, " I'm not sure either, that Mrs. 
 Freemantle would quite like it, if I told her I needn't 
 horrow the money," I thought none the worse of him 
 for that touch of human nature. The primary 
 motive was a lofty one, and who but a Pharisee dare 
 cast a stone at him. 
 
 " I think I understand," said I.' 
 
 " It's no such great sacrifice, after all," he con- 
 tinued. "I can easily pay it hack in a couple of 
 years. It only means postponing the publication of 
 the second series of my ' Heroes,' you know. That's 
 of no real consequence. Of course, I may be cut 
 off in the mean time, but I can put a note with my 
 will asking my executors to publish it. If a book's 
 worth anything, it doesn't matter much when it 
 comes out." 
 
 He sat meditating after this, and I wondered 
 whether, in his mind's eye, he saw the "Heroes," 
 standing side by side with the " Pilgrim's Progress," 
 upon the bookshelves of pious generations yet 
 unborn. 
 
 "It's very kind of your benevolent lady," I 
 remarked. 
 
 135
 
 A Legal Practitioner 
 
 " It is, indeed ; and to tell you the truth, I always 
 had an impression that she didn't like me. She's 
 been a member of my congregation for three or four 
 years ; but I always fancied she was a little chilly 
 till yesterday evening." 
 
 "Was the man out when you got home yester- 
 day?" 
 
 " He was just going ; it wasn't the one I found in 
 my bedroom. I felt a little sorry that I didn't have 
 a chance of bidding him good-bye. He was so con- 
 siderate, you know." 
 
 " I remember your saying so on Tuesday." 
 
 " He was most considerate. And not only to me ; 
 he quite won my housekeeper's heart. There was 
 some little unpleasantness, I understand, when he 
 first came ; but he bore no malice, and she seems to 
 have quite enjoyed his company. Would you believe 
 it ? he sings and plays the piano. It must be very 
 painful for a man like that to have to follow such a 
 harsh calling. It quite troubles me to think 
 about it." 
 
 I dined with Mr. Fairfield that evening, and we 
 made merry over the occurrences of the past few 
 days. 
 
 " Don't go back to Chicago without giving me a 
 report of the expiatory sermon," I said, at parting. 
 
 On the following Monday, my friend turned up at 
 Gray's Inn. He knows that when business is slack 
 
 136
 
 A Passive Resister 
 
 he will always find a welcome and a oup of tea at 
 about four o'clock. 
 
 " I doubt if that sixty pounds will ever be paid 
 back," he observed, with a twinkling eye. " I was 
 at Temsley yesterday." 
 
 "But he said that Mrs. Freemantle was an 
 elderly widow." 
 
 " Did he mention her daughter ? " 
 
 "Not he the little villain! Have you seen 
 her?" 
 
 "I sat in their pew Dawes presented me to 
 them outside and they took us home to lunch. The 
 old lady was mistaken in assuming that I took such 
 an interest in missions to our Bed Indians ; but she 
 was most kind and hospitable. I don't think I ever 
 felt more inclined for an armchair and a good book 
 than I did after lunch yesterday." 
 
 " But you did not have a nap ? " 
 
 " That wouldn't have been seemly. But really I 
 felt that I must have a stroll. There I was, ' replete 
 with animal food,' as Dr. Marigold puts it. So I had 
 another look at that old house. By-the-by, a native 
 told me there was a local tradition that Oliver's body 
 was buried in the garden, after it had been exhumed 
 and hanged." 
 
 " But what about the martyrs ? " 
 
 " Well, they took something of a back seat ; the 
 sermon was on brotherly love. He didn't leave them 
 out altogether, but they played iecond fiddle, to say 
 
 137
 
 A Legal Practitioner 
 
 the least of it. His little heart was full of something 
 else; a pint-pot won't hold more than a pint. To 
 tell the truth, the whole sermon was something of 
 an anti-climax we'd had such thrills in the second 
 prayer. I believe they call it 'the long prayer,'" 
 added Mr. Fairfield, musingly ; " and if they don't, 
 they ought to." 
 
 " The first surprise came quite early in the 
 prayer," he resumed, after lighting a cigar. "He 
 couldn't have been on his knees for more than ten or 
 twelve minutes when he sprang that upon us." 
 
 " Come, come ! " I protested, laughing. 
 
 "Well, it seemed a very long time. I was just 
 beginning to lose all sense of what was going on, 
 when I felt a sort of shiver run through the congre- 
 gation I can't exactly describe what I mean and I 
 found that he was praying for Brother Nangle." 
 
 " Good heavens ! " I exclaimed. " He'll be hauled 
 up for perverting the course of justice. The man 
 isn't tried yet." 
 
 "I don't think you need be uneasy. Your law 
 can't be quite such an ass as all that. I don't know 
 how he led up to it I'm sure the name wasn't men- 
 tioned but when the shiver came, I found he was 
 asking that our hearts might be cleansed of all bitter- 
 ness and resentment, and that as we hoped to be 
 forgiven our trespasses, so might we forgive those 
 who had trespassed against us. Then he made a 
 pause. And it was just as well he did; the little 
 
 138
 
 A Passive Resister 
 
 chap was very near breaking down. It really was 
 quite touching not a bit theatrical." 
 
 "And what was the second sensation? " 
 
 "That was when he returned thanks for the 
 loan." My friend brought this out with much dry 
 relish. 
 
 " Did he mention the name, that time ? " 
 
 " No ; but everybody understood. I don't say that 
 any one looked up, but there was a general heave in 
 our direction. I felt quite embarrassed." 
 
 " And how about Mrs. Freemantle ? " 
 
 " Hum ! I don't think it took her by surprise. 
 And she's a rather self-important old lady, I may 
 tell you. Unless I grievously misjudge her, she 
 accepted it as a very proper acknowledgment of a 
 meritorious action." 
 
 " And the young lady ? " 
 
 " The young lady is quite different. I'd seen her 
 before, by-the-by. She was sitting in our row at that 
 meeting. Do you remember somebody laughing when 
 Dawes thrust those provisions into my hands ? That 
 was she." 
 
 " I remember it quite distinctly. I'm glad she's 
 got a sense of humour. I suppose, you're quite sure 
 there is something on foot ? " 
 
 "I may be parcel blind, or even sand blind," 
 retorted Mr. Fairfield, caressing his pince-nez, " but 
 I am not high-gravel blind ; and as a matter of fact, 
 the old lady said something as I squired bar home 
 
 139
 
 A Legal Practitioner 
 
 on my arm. There's no formal betrothal yet. I 
 suppose that will be announced from the pulpit in 
 due course." 
 
 The betrothal was announced to me before many 
 days had gone by ; and a few months later, I received 
 a piece of wedding-cake. It has not yet been my 
 privilege to meet the lady, nor have I seen her lord 
 since he brought Mamma's cheque to Gray's Inn; 
 but by dedicating to me the second series of his great 
 work, he has given an assurance of his regard, which 
 will no doubt, transmit my name to a remote posterity. 
 
 By some means or other, the ex-church-officer 
 managed to obtain legal assistance. More than once 
 before the trial, I came across a newspaper paragraph 
 informing the public, that Messrs. Higgenson and Flint 
 had undertaken his defence ; and after his conviction, 
 the firm found it necessary to write to the papers 
 correcting certain errors in the reports. Sweet are 
 the uses of advertisement, even in the by-ways of the 
 Law ! Strange to say, the leading counsel for the 
 prisoner was not Mr. Bellamy Ornae. 
 
 Brother Nangle is at present an inmate of Worm- 
 wood Scrubbs prison. Carlyon assures me that when 
 last heard of, he had joined the Established Church, 
 and was in high favour with the chaplain who had 
 effected his conversion. 
 
 140
 
 A CASE OF WATER RIGHTS 
 
 CHAPTEE I 
 
 IT was in the august neighbourhood, which borders 
 Hyde Park on the east, that I made the acquaintance 
 of the Hon. John Ellers, the defendant in the action 
 of Oldroyd v. Ellers. This exalted person was no 
 client of mine. His solicitors were Messrs. Empson 
 and Dudley, the old country firm with whom, in my 
 young days, I had served a clerkship. When I left 
 them and settled in Gray's Inn, they transferred their 
 London agency to me, and glad I was to have it at 
 that time. 
 
 My business with the Hon. John was to take his 
 instructions upon a certain opinion of counsel, and 
 discuss it with him so far as might be necessary. 
 Only the day before, had I been asked to do this. 
 My country clients' letter had been accompanied by 
 a formidable bundle of papers; and with apologies 
 for the shortness of the notice, they had asked me 
 to attend to the matter myself, and to do my best to 
 pick up the facts in time. 
 
 On untying the bundle, I found that a Chancery 
 141
 
 A Legal Practitioner 
 
 action had been brought by one Luke Oldroyd against 
 the Hon. John Francis Ellers-Talboys Ellers, to 
 restrain him from diversion and pollution in respect 
 of the waters of a stream called the Drawl brook, and 
 a channel or goit called Longman's Gut, and that 
 counsel had been instructed to advise whether the 
 defendant had a good defence. I had no time to go 
 into the matter just then ; so picking out two or three 
 of the more material documents, I summoned Mr. 
 Thomas Murchison, my articled clerk, and requested 
 him to make a digest of them. I did this, be it under- 
 stood, more in his interest than in my own. It was 
 unlikely that his milk teeth would prove equal to the 
 task of cracking a nut so tough, and extracting its 
 kernel ; but I hoped that his efforts to do so would 
 help to strengthen his jaws, and prepare them for 
 similar exercises in days to come. 
 
 Tommy, however, did better than I expected. 
 When, after dinner, I settled down to the matter, I 
 found that his digest was a very creditable perform- 
 ance ; though, notwithstanding the assistance which 
 it gave me, I had to spend two or three hours over the 
 papers before I felt properly equipped for the interview. 
 I finished up by consulting a peerage, and reading, to 
 my edification, the account which it gave of the 
 defendant's family and its achievements. 
 
 When, at ten o'clock next morning, I presented 
 myself in Park Lane, a grey-headed servant led me 
 upstairs to a room overlooking the park. On a 
 
 142
 
 A Case of Water Rights 
 
 newspaper upon the floor lay a great heap of hothouse 
 roses, and beside it was a girl just blooming into 
 womanhood a girl, who seemed like a flower herself. 
 
 " Mr. Ellers said he should be here," murmured 
 the servant, as he turned to leave the room. 
 
 " My father hasn't come up yet ; I think he's 
 reading the paper." 
 
 It was a soft, sunny May morning ; and she looked 
 like the queen of roses, as she stood, the blossoms in 
 both her hands and the sunbeams glistening on her 
 hair. 
 
 I was seated near the window by this time, and 
 for a minute or two I looked out upon the prospect. 
 I knew from a rustling near the door that the girl was 
 etill busy with the flowers. Suddenly she spoke to me. 
 
 " You want to see my father about Mr. Oldroyd's 
 complaints ? " 
 
 "Yes," I answered. 
 
 She seemed a little embarrassed at having broken 
 the ice, and her fingers were playing nervously with 
 the stalks of a feathery bunch of green sprays. 
 
 " You're a lawyer ; are you not ? " 
 
 " I'm a solicitor," I admitted. 
 
 "Isn't it a pity, this trouble about the Drawl ? " 
 she asked timidly. 
 
 I was disposed to think that it was a great pity ; 
 but my opinion was a crude one, and good or bad, it 
 was no part of my duty to lay it before her. This 
 being so, I took refuge in a platitude. 
 
 J43
 
 A Legal Practitioner 
 
 " A dispute between neighbours is always a pity.' ' 
 
 " Can't you advise my father " she began ; but 
 
 at this moment the door opened and she broke off. 
 
 My personal acquaintance with noble lords and 
 their relations had been so slight that I was conscious 
 of a feeling of surprise, not to say disappointment, 
 when the Hon. John stood before me. He had a thin 
 and weedy yellow beard, and there was a plumpness 
 about his figure and a dreamy look in his spectacled 
 eyes, which were more suggestive of a German pro- 
 fessor than a landed proprietor, who was own brother 
 to a viscount. He was well-groomed, however, and 
 his manner was cordial and easy. 
 
 " So sorry to bring you out so early," he began, 
 after shaking hands, "but I dare say my solicitors 
 told you I was leaving town in a hurry ; I'm due at 
 Charing Cross in an hour. I've read Mr. Siderfin's 
 opinion," he went on, as he took a chair and began to 
 turn over some papers. " It's quite clear ; isn't it ? " 
 
 " Quite clear, I think." 
 
 " And I've got a good case ? " 
 
 " That's Mr. Siderfin's opinion." 
 
 "And he says I ought to fight." 
 
 This was overstating the effect of the opinion. 
 " He advises you to fight, if you attach importance to 
 the rights you claim, either from the benefit you 
 derive from them personally, or for the sake of pro- 
 tecting the inheritance," I remarked. 
 
 " Oh yes ! those are his words, I remember. I 
 144
 
 A Case of Water Rights 
 
 was struck at his reference to the inheritance. That 
 really means those who come after me ; doesn't it ! " 
 
 As he said this he looked towards the girl. She 
 was still busy with the flowers, and apparently was 
 not listening. The peerage had told me that he was 
 a widower and that she was his only child. 
 
 " Now I come to think of it," he resumed, " it was 
 that suggestion which turned the scale in my own 
 mind. I mustn't sacrifice the inheritance." 
 
 " Then you have made up your mind ? " 
 
 " Yes ; I was doubtful until that point about the 
 inheritance came before me ; but, as I said just now, 
 that turned the scale. And then, again, this York- 
 shireman's not to he trusted. Give him an inch 
 and he'd take an ell. Yes, I'm quite determined to 
 fight." 
 
 From Mr. Ellers' manner, and, in particular, from 
 the satisfaction with which he referred to the inherit- 
 ance, one felt a suspicion that he had welcomed that 
 point, not to say jumped at it, as an excuse for taking 
 a course which his better judgment condemned ; and 
 when he came to speak of his opponent, my suspicion 
 hardened into something like a certainty. The York- 
 shireiaan was evidently such a very objectionable 
 person that to yield to him, even if he were in the 
 right, would be sorely against the grain. 
 
 " Your wish is that Mr. Oldroyd's solicitor shall 
 have notice that the action must proceed," said I. 
 
 " Yes, that's my wish. I dare say you know this 
 H5 L
 
 A Legal Practitioner 
 
 is the last day. By-the-by, I thought the offer he 
 made when he sent the writ, to give us a month in 
 which to reconsider matters, looked encouraging. A 
 man wouldn't do that if he thought he was sure 
 to win." 
 
 I did not feel certain of this, for ifi struck me that, 
 possibly, the plaintiff might feel so sure of his case as 
 to be indifferent to any construction which the other 
 side might put upon his offer. And I had another 
 consideration in my mind. Knowing something of 
 the awful expense of such litigation as that threat- 
 ened, I thought that a practical man, who knew what 
 he wanted and meant to fight for it, if he could not 
 get it by other means, might very well give his 
 opponent a last chance of coming to terms with him 
 out of court. 
 
 " Don't you agree with me ? " asked Ellers. 
 " One must know a good deal more of the people 
 we have to deal with than I know, to feel sure of what 
 that offer means, but I confess I don't feel certain that 
 it shows weakness," said I ; and I went on to give my 
 reasons. 
 
 " I'm sure, father, that Mr. Oldroyd means to go 
 on," broke in the girl, as soon as I had come to an 
 end. " All the people at Monksmill were talking 
 about it when I left Constable yesterday. Crimp, the 
 blacksmith, told Hammond that if Mr. Oldroyd didn't 
 get his rights, he meant to sell all and go back to 
 Yorkshire for good, though he had bought Pett's farm 
 
 146
 
 A Case of Water Rights 
 
 and Longman's meadows. He said you might guess 
 he wouldn't do that without a struggle." 
 
 " He's spent twenty thousand pounds at Monks- 
 mill ; if he spends a little more on law, perhaps he'll 
 get his own way with the water," said the Hon. John, 
 a little heated, " but he won't get it by blustering. 
 We'll see what becomes of his threat when the action's 
 over. Let him go back to Yorkshire and welcome ! 
 Who wants him at Monksmill ? " 
 
 " Uncle Kerswell will be home in about three 
 weeks ; can't you wait till then, and talk it over with 
 him ? I'm sure you'll be dreadfully worried if there's 
 any law business." 
 
 Miss Ellers had come forward, and she was 
 standing by her father as she said this. 
 
 "The expense will be so dreadful you said we 
 couldn't afford it and it does make so much bad 
 feeling between the two villages," she went on. 
 " Hammond declared that Crimp was quite insulting. 
 He said that Mr. Oldroyd had done more for Monks- 
 mill in six years than we'd done for Constable since 
 King Harry's time. It wasn't like Crimp to say that." 
 
 " I dare say the man encourages his people to 
 make themselves offensive," retorted Ellers. " No, 
 Doris, this must be settled at once. Mr. Oldroyd 
 has brought his action and I won't ask for any delay. 
 If he's ready to go on, so are we." 
 
 147
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 THE history of Constable Abbey may be read by all in 
 the erudite pages of the county historian. 
 
 At the Eeformation the abbey of St. Jerome was 
 suppressed and the fabric dismantled. The lands 
 and all the abbey's riparian rights and privileges, 
 were granted to one Christopher Talboys, " a gentle- 
 man of Gloucestershire." In the reign of Elizabeth, 
 the grandson of this Talboys built a mansion house, 
 and round it he laid out a park, the southern boundary 
 whereof was the Drawl. The demesne was known by 
 the old name of Constable Abbey, and by that name 
 the mansion house, and all about it, have been called 
 to this day. 
 
 In Constable park, some half-mile lower down the 
 stream, the third Talboys built a dower house. This, 
 for a hundred and fifty years, was known as the Small 
 House, and was an appanage of the Abbey, but early 
 in the reign of Queen Anne the name was changed 
 to Monksmill House. A few years before this, a good 
 slice of the eastern portion of the park, including the 
 site of the Small House, had been sold by the Talboys 
 of that day; a utilitarian person who, when asked 
 
 148
 
 A Case of Water Rights 
 
 why he did not sell a farm instead, had made answer 
 that dower houses paid no rent. 
 
 Opposite this house, on the other side of the Drawl, 
 the abbey mill had stood with, perhaps, a few cottages 
 round it, and the place had gained the name of 
 Monksmill. For some reason or other, the old mill 
 had been abandoned by the monks, and they had 
 built a new mill at a point higher up the stream, hard 
 by the village of Constable- Abbotts. This village was 
 in existence as far back as the eleventh century, when 
 Monksmill had not even a name; but, for three 
 centuries past, Monksmill has been slowly lifting its 
 head, and now it bids fair to outgrow Constable- 
 Abbotts itself. 
 
 In one respect, however, it can never cope with 
 the older village ; for the Abbey park and woodlands 
 are very fine, and the mansion house is one of the 
 most beautiful homes in England. To general 
 features, which will bear comparison with Wotton or 
 Charlecote, it adds the crowning glory of a large 
 gothic hall, once the abbey chapel. The ruins of 
 this building were left untouched when the mansion 
 was built possibly Talboys, the third, had a sense 
 of the picturesque, and thought them a good foil to 
 his red brickwork and so they remained until a 
 successor of James the Second's time set about 
 restoring them, and making such alterations in the 
 house, as were necessary to work the two fabrics into 
 one harmonious whole. Tradition says that he spent 
 
 149
 
 A Legal Practitioner 
 
 the equivalent of some thirty thousand pounds of our 
 money before his end was accomplished. 
 
 The Hon. John Ellers became entitled to the 
 Abbey estate under his mother's marriage settlement. 
 She was a Miss EUers-Talboys, who had married the 
 then Lord Kerswell. The pair were distant cousins ; 
 for, about a hundred years before, a female Talboys, 
 the owner of the estate, had married an Ellers, a 
 nephew of the head of that family. The double- 
 barrelled surname owed its existence to this union. 
 
 Monksmill House is simply a square, comfortable 
 dwelling-house of four storeys, with a tiled roof and 
 a bell-tower, but the grounds are extensive. The 
 entrance is on the south side, nearly opposite a bridge 
 over the Drawl. The highway to Monksmill village 
 runs over this bridge, and then curves to the left, past 
 the gates. In the other direction, the road follows 
 the river in a bold sweep to the north-west; and, 
 crossing another bridge, it enters Constable-Abbotts, 
 just below the present mill. Half-way through the 
 village the park gates open upon a chestnut avenue, 
 which leads up to the Abbey. 
 
 Oddly enough, the two properties were reunited in 
 the fat years of the Peninsular War, nearly a hundred 
 years after the severance, but in the lean years that 
 followed Waterloo, the son of the Ellers-Talboys, who 
 had bought back Monksmill House, found himself 
 in want of money and had to sell it. This was a 
 blow to the family dignity, which he felt sorely ; and 
 
 150
 
 A Case of Water Rights 
 
 in his will, he followed the devise of the Abbey estate 
 by a pious hope that the devisee, or some later 
 Ellers-Talboys, might restore the demesne to its 
 original proportions. No succeeding owner had been 
 able to do this, though each one had cast an envious 
 eye upon the house by the bridge, and had longed to 
 recover it. The Hon. John looked upon it with none 
 the less envy, because, from the very first, he had 
 found it no easy matter to make both ends meet. To 
 a rent-charge, created by the marriage settlement in 
 favour of his two listers, he had been obliged to add 
 a mortgage on his own account, whereby the income 
 of the property had been considerably reduced. 
 
 Oldroyd had bought Monksmill House five or six 
 years before the issue of his writ. He was the son of 
 a Yorkshire manufacturer, who had begun his career 
 as a mill-hand. By thrift and intelligence the mill- 
 hand had worked his way up, until at the age of 
 sixty-five, he had handed over his two or three 
 woollen mills to his son, and had retired to an estate, 
 which he had bought in the Leeds district. To the 
 last he retained many of the ways of his youth. I 
 have been assured that when he went over the 
 property, before making his offer for it, he partook of 
 a meat tea with the caretaker, and that when he 
 called on the vendor's solicitors to discuss terms, he 
 strolled into their office in his shirt sleeves. Fortu- 
 nately for Seth Oldroyd's son, the boy was not born 
 until his sire was in comfortable circumstances, and
 
 A Legal Practitioner 
 
 it was equally fortunate that the father was keenly 
 alive to the advantages of a good education. 
 
 Luke Oldroyd took warning by the example of his 
 father, who had died of sheer lack of employment, 
 two years after his retirement. Though Luke carried 
 on the mills with all the zeal and ability of his pre- 
 decessor, his superior education and broader outlook 
 enabled him to delegate much of the work to sub- 
 ordinates, with the result that he found time to learn 
 the business of a country gentleman while he was 
 comparatively young. Before he was fifty he turned 
 the wool-making concern into a limited company; 
 and having reserved to himself a commanding position 
 on the directorate, he confined his attendance at the 
 mills to one day a week, or thereabouts, and spent 
 the rest of his time upon the estate, which had so 
 shortened his father's life. A few years later he 
 came to the conclusion that he would give up business 
 altogether. He had a large fortune ; he found no 
 difficulty in occupying his time apart from the mills, 
 and he was advised that his wife must live in a 
 warmer atmosphere than the keen Yorkshire air. 
 
 At this time Monksmill House was to let. Luke 
 Oldroyd took it for a year, and furnished a sufficient 
 part of it for his wife; he himself, rarely stopping 
 there for many weeks at a time. 
 
 The feud with Ellers had its beginning at a very 
 early date. The new tenant of Monksmill House was 
 a fisherman ; and though the fishing in the Drawl 
 
 152
 
 A Case of Water Rights 
 
 was beneath his notice,!he was much incensed to find, 
 one morning, that the water was fouled with some 
 chemical matter. On crossing the bridge and follow- 
 ing the pollution up stream, beyond the wall dividing 
 the two properties, he was satisfied that it originated 
 in a discharge from the park bank, just below a 
 wooden structure, almost hidden in a clump of trees. 
 He was able to ascertain from a road-mender that 
 this was a laboratory, which Ellers, who dabbled in 
 chemistry, had put up a few years earlier. 
 
 The stream was clear again very soon, but Oldroyd 
 determined to keep an eye upon the water, and to 
 communicate with his landlord in the event of the 
 nuisance being repeated. His proposed course of 
 action was irreproachable ; but, unluckily, he was still 
 angry when he told one of his men to keep a watch, 
 and he interlarded his instructions with some strong 
 language, reflecting upon his neighbour's unneigh- 
 bourliness. This (with, of course, considerable 
 additions) reached Ellers through the channel of his 
 bailiff, with the result that the Abbey folk held aloof 
 from the new tenants of the House. 
 
 At the end of the first year, it seemed probable to 
 Oldroyd that, before long, he would have to turn out 
 in favour of a purchaser, if he merely renewed his 
 tenancy. Under the circumstances, he decided to 
 buy Monksmill House and make it his own home 
 during the winter months. Even his loyalty to 
 Yorkshire could not blind him to the fact that there 
 
 153
 
 A Legal Practitioner 
 
 was something very alluring in the milder winters of 
 the South. 
 
 No sooner was the place his own, than the tempta- 
 tion to make improvements was too much for him. 
 From improvements to additions was only one step ; 
 and before four years had run out, he had made two 
 purchases of land adjoining his property on the east. 
 One of the purchases comprised certain fields called 
 Longman's meadows, through which ran an arm of 
 the Drawl : a channel or goit called Longman's Gut. 
 
 There had been a second pollution of the stream 
 soon after the purchase of Monksmill House. On 
 this occasion Oldroyd had written to Ellers, and had 
 received a reply intimating, stiffly but politely, that 
 the complaint should be investigated. But no further 
 letter followed. 
 
 Next summer there was another exchange of 
 letters. During a long spell of dry weather, the 
 stream ran so low, that a supply of water, which had 
 always been obtainable for stable use at Monksmill 
 House, failed altogether. At the same time that 
 Oldroyd was told of the failure of his pumps, it was 
 hinted to him that some change had recently been 
 made in the working of Constable mill, and that but 
 for this, the supply in the main stream would not 
 have sunk so low. In writing to Ellers, he appealed 
 to him not to allow his tenant, the miller, to do 
 anything that would unnecessarily reduce the flow of 
 the Drawl. The answer was an unmistakable snub : 
 
 154
 
 A Case of Water Rights 
 
 whatever the miller might be doing, Ellers was sure 
 that he was acting within his rights, and the matter 
 was, therefore, not one for a landlord's interference. 
 
 So far, Oldroyd's communications had contained 
 no threat of legal proceedings. They had been 
 letters drawing the attention of the upper riparian 
 owner to inconveniences inflicted upon the one below 
 him, and asking for their abatement. In his cooler 
 moments, Oldroyd admitted that the two instances of 
 pollution had been of very trifling description, and 
 that the failure of the water supply to the stables had 
 not lasted for more than two or three days. These 
 things had, in fact, been little more than trifles, but 
 in the summer following the purchase of Longman's 
 meadows, matters assumed a more serious aspect. 
 The tenant of these meadows relied upon Longman's 
 Gut for watering his horses and cattle ; and he had 
 assured Oldroyd, soon after the completion of the 
 purchase, that with the exception of the two or three 
 summer days on which the stable pumps at Monksmill 
 House had failed, he had, during the whole term of 
 his tenancy a period of some twenty years always 
 had a supply sufficient for his wants. 
 
 This set his landlord a-thinking ; and when next 
 summer there was a prolonged drought, and for five 
 weeks Longman's Gut had been nearly dry, he drove 
 into Moatsbridge and laid the facts before Mr. 
 Althelstan Sawyer. This gentleman was a solicitor 
 of five-and-thirty, shrewd, industrious, and keen as 
 
 155
 
 A Legal Practitioner 
 
 mustard. He had descended upon the city like a 
 squatter, five years before ; and in these five years, 
 incredible though it may seem, he had managed to 
 get himself talked about as a man against whom, 
 when it came to fighting, the old established practi- 
 tioners were as babies. That evening the first shot 
 in the coming battle was fired. 
 
 Ellers carried Sawyer's letter to Empson and 
 Dudley. They had recently acquired from the widow 
 of his late solicitor, who had died suddenly, the right 
 to call themselves the dead man's successors, and 
 had circularized his clients accordingly. The mere 
 fact that Oldroyd had instructed Sawyer, put them 
 on their mettle; and in their answer to his letter, 
 they struck a note of hostility and contempt, which 
 he was only too ready to adopt and accentuate. 
 
 While the war of correspondence was raging, each 
 side was straining every nerve to obtain evidence in 
 support of its contentions. Sawyer and his spies left 
 no stone unturned, and Empson and Dudley were 
 hardly less energetic. Everybody in the two villages 
 knew what was on foot, and feeling began to run 
 high between them. Monksmill to a man swore by 
 Oldroyd, and Constable by Ellers. The Yorkshire- 
 man's money meant a good deal to the one, while in 
 the other, the Squire, as Ellers was generally called, 
 had a long feudal tradition behind him, and was, 
 himself, not unpopular. And to fan the flame, there 
 were the local jealousies, which had been smouldering 
 
 156
 
 A Case of Water Rights 
 
 for generations. Monksmill and Constable hailed the 
 plaintiff and defendant as their champions. 
 
 The more Sawyer looked into the case, the more 
 confident he grew, and the more irritating were the 
 letters which he wrote to the other side. The old firm 
 ought to have set him a good example, but under the 
 flouts and jeer s of their young rival, they flung dignity 
 to the winds. I fairly blushed for my old masters 
 when the huge block of futility came before me. It 
 was everything that a correspondence between solici- 
 tors ought not to be. It was a mere scolding match ; 
 and so lamentably ineffectual. Never before had I 
 come across such a monument of bad temper, bad 
 feeling, and bad English. 
 
 157
 
 CHAPTEE III 
 
 IN mercy to the non-legal reader I must pass rapidly 
 over the progress of the litigation down to the 
 trial. 
 
 Lord Bowen is reported to have said that actions 
 were lost or won before they went into court. 
 Whether this be often the case nowadays, the present 
 scribe has his doubts, but it cannot be denied that in 
 litigation of importance, the course of proceedings 
 before trial has a very material bearing upon the final 
 issue, and offers scope for many tactical operations, 
 vastly entertaining to the instructed. The only pity 
 is that chess-playing of this kind is so costly. 
 
 The first move in Oldroyd v. Ellers was made a 
 few days after my interview with the defendant. Old- 
 royd served notice of motion for an interim injunc- 
 tion: that is, an injunction until the trial of the 
 action. This move was purely tactical, for in the 
 circumstances of the case, an order was not to be 
 hoped for. What the plaintiff wanted was to lure us 
 into disclosing, by our affidavits in opposition, certain 
 evidence, which would be useful to him for the pur- 
 poses of his statement of claim the pleading in 
 
 158
 
 A Case of Water Rights 
 
 which a plaintiff sets out his case for the considera- 
 tion of the Court. This manoeuvre, however, was un- 
 successful ; for without filing any evidence we got the 
 motion put aside. 
 
 In due course, the statement of claim was put in. 
 This was a very long document, which carried matters 
 back to the foundation of Constable Abbey in the 
 third year of King John. This pleading having been 
 followed by a light skirmish at our instance, which 
 resulted in the plaintiff being forced to give certain 
 further information on one or two points, our 
 pleading in answer was put in. This provoked 
 another light skirmish for particulars ; the attacking 
 party being the plaintiff, and at the same time, both 
 parties entered upon a severe conflict for the in- 
 spection of one another's documents. The next 
 operation of any importance was their struggle for 
 the inspection of one another's properties. 
 
 I may mention in passing, that science and art, 
 in the persons of engineers and photographers, were 
 shedding their beneficent influence upon the fray, 
 and that humane letters joined them later on, when 
 the abbey charters were produced, and translation 
 became necessary. The claim to relief on the ground 
 of pollution had not been carried further than the 
 writ, or the aid of chemistry must also have been 
 invoked. 
 
 In the affairs of outposts, to which I am now 
 referring, the engineers were to the fore on both 
 
 159
 
 A Legal Practitioner 
 
 sides : the photographers had been in the field from 
 the beginning. With these last I had no personal 
 communication they were instructed in the country 
 but I had a good deal to do with the engineers : 
 skilled mercenaries of Victoria Street, who saw only 
 with the employer's eye, and in whose hands mathe- 
 matics were as gutta-percha. 
 
 But though I saw nothing of the photographers, 
 I saw plenty of their handiwork. From that, I 
 seemed to know the Drawl eastward from Constable 
 Mill to where Longman's Gut rejoined it, and the 
 whole course of the Gut itself, as intimately as if I 
 had been born on the land. Some of these photo- 
 graphs " laughing shallow and dreaming pool " 
 were enough to make a Londoner in the dog days, 
 pant longingly for the waterbrooks and the green 
 countryside. 
 
 Now and again, during the preliminary stages of 
 the action, I heard from one source and another, of 
 the difficulty that each party was experiencing in 
 obtaining evidence, so far as his opponent's end of 
 the locus was concerned. Every dweller at the 
 Monksmill end was the sworn vassal of the plaintiff, 
 and a perfect mine of information in his favour ; 
 while at Constable, every man, woman and child was 
 eager to assist Ellers, and correspondingly eager to 
 injure Oldroyd. I was assured, moreover, that the 
 readiness with which these simple-minded children of 
 the soil had grasped the essential points in dispute, 
 
 1 60
 
 A Case of Water Rights 
 
 and the dexterity with which they framed their 
 evidence in accordance with the requirements of their 
 own side, was almost diabolical ; and that, in these 
 respects, there was not a pin to choose between 
 Monksmill and Constable. 
 
 When first the plaintiffs engineers went a-gauging 
 and spying about generally, in the neighbourhood of 
 our mill, their demeanour to the natives was most 
 ingratiating, and they plied them with artful questions. 
 In the innocence of their hearts, these experts 
 thought r to obtain scraps of evidence in Oldroyd's 
 favour, but after the first visit the experiment was 
 not repeated. It was with roars of laughter that 
 Jobson, one of our engineers, reported to me how a 
 friend of his, retained on behalf of the enemy, had 
 fared in his efforts to pick up evidence at Constable, 
 and Jobson went on to admit that he, himself, had 
 gone through a precisely similar experience at 
 Monksmill. 
 
 Of the dealings of the one village with the other I 
 heard something from old Trput, a veteran clerk of 
 Empson and Dudley, who had been a colleague of 
 mine in their office five-and-twenty years before. 
 
 " There's a regular patrol above the mill," said 
 he, " and if any one from Monksmill, or any stranger, 
 shows himself he can't cock an eye over the bank 
 without being marked down. Our people can't keep 
 'em off the ground the path's a public thoroughfare 
 but it's none too pleasant to be squinting about 
 
 161 M
 
 A Legal Practitioner 
 
 with half a dozen hanging round you, and one or two 
 of 'em spitting on their hands." 
 
 " Do your people manage to keep an eye on the 
 Gut?" 
 
 " Pretty fair ! The bed of the brook's our land 
 down there, and you can see the Gut from the north 
 bank. Old Zachary Thrift's our best man for seeing 
 what's going on ; he's wonderful clever, though he's 
 ninety." 
 
 "How does he manage it? Isn't all Monksmill 
 on the lookout for spies ? " 
 
 " The old chap turns out as soon as it's light ; he 
 says he don't care for sleeping much at a stretch. 
 He was on the job at three o'clock all last summer." 
 
 " And how about the winter ? " 
 
 " There's nothing to watch in the winter ; there's 
 plenty of water for everybody, then. And it isn't only 
 at Monksmill our old man's been watching. He's 
 been keeping an eye on the other end of the Gut 
 too, where the intake is. Oldroyd's men take a lot 
 of interest in that ; but it ain't easy to get at. It's in 
 our park, you see ! Old Thrift was too much for 
 one of 'em last June. Oh Lord, that was a good 
 'un ! " and Trout stopped to roar over the recollection. 
 
 " It was like this," he resumed, after wiping his 
 eyes. " Zachary had been down to the water 
 meadows, taking a squint at the Gut, and, on his way 
 back to Constable, he sits down to have a rest in the 
 
 162
 
 A Case of Water Rights 
 
 " Bather damp for a gentleman of ninety," said I. 
 " How about the dew ? " 
 
 "Oh, he'd find a dry place. Trust him for 
 taking care of himself! Well, the old chap falls 
 asleep, and he's woke up by some one getting over 
 the stile close by, where the footpath from Monks- 
 mill comes out. Out pops Crimp, the blacksmith, 
 and he crosses the road, and gets through the hedge 
 on the other side. He didn't see Thrift ; but Thrift 
 saw him, and he knew he was going down to the 
 brook. So he waits a little while, and then he creeps 
 through the hedge. There's some alders and bushes 
 on the brook side just there, and he thinks Crimp 
 must be behind 'em, because he can't see him. So 
 he creeps up steam a bit, and looks back ; and then 
 he sees there's a plank run right across out of the 
 bushes it's near the intake, you understand ! and 
 there's Master Crimp on the park side, taking his 
 observations ! Presently he comes back along the 
 plank, and he hides it in the bushes, and off he 
 strolls, as pleased as Punch. Thrift goes and looks 
 at the plank, and finds it a good stout one, and 
 new the brook's a fairish width just there, and 
 Crimp's as heavy as an elephant. Thrift thinks 
 matters over, and as soon as folks are about, he goes 
 up to the Abbey and sees his grandson. Ben Thrift's 
 a gardener there that's what Zachary was, till Mr. 
 Ellers pensioned him off and he's clever at car- 
 pentering. Between 'em they doctor up that plank, 
 
 163
 
 A Legal Practitioner 
 
 so as it looks all right, but' won't stand much weight 
 in the middle. Next morning, old Zachary goes out 
 at daybreak, and he hides near the bushes, but 
 Crimp doesn't come. And he doesn't come the next 
 day; nor the next. Zach don't mind. His time's 
 his own, he says, and he swears he'll stick to it for a 
 month, if need be. The fourth day's Sunday ; but he 
 says to himself he won't run no risks, and down he 
 goes. Presently, he hears Crimp getting through 
 the hedge, and sees him come prancing down to the 
 brook He shoves the plank across, and the next 
 minute it's broke in two, and he's head over heels in 
 the Drawl. He lands out on the park side, swearing 
 something fearful, for he's got his best trousers on. 
 Thrift sees he hasn't the ghost of a notion that the 
 thing isn't a pure accident. There he sits, till it 
 strikes him that he came to see the Gut, and he 
 thinks that, wet or dry, he may as well have a look 
 at it before he goes back; so he gets up. But he 
 catches sight of one half of the plank ; and he fishes 
 it out, and he takes a look at the broken end. Then 
 he stares hard at it, and then he sits down again and 
 studies it, and begins to whistle. At last, he drops 
 it, and sits there scratching his head. When he's 
 tired of that, he hunts about till he finds the other 
 half ; and he puts both halves under his arm, and 
 he wades across, and goes off home, as meek as a 
 mouse." 
 
 " That isn't the end of it, either," added Trout, 
 164
 
 A Case of Water Rights 
 
 when we had had our laugh. "Crimp thought 
 nobody knew what had happened ; but when he next 
 showed himself in Constable, the children began to 
 ask him questions about his Sunday trousers. No 
 man dare do it, and the women wouldn't." 
 
 We were getting near Christmas, when old Trout 
 looked in at Gray's Inn to have a chat with me. 
 The affairs of outposts were yet in progress, and the 
 decisive battle was still a long way off. As a matter 
 of fact, it did not come on until the following June. 
 A good deal of delay was necessarily occasioned by 
 the enemy amending his statement of claim, after 
 his lawyers had gone through Ellers' muniments of 
 title, and his engineers had inspected the intake in 
 the park; but the exceeding bitterness with which 
 the action was fought on both sides, was responsible 
 for much of the time occupied. The country solicitors, 
 in their exasperation, were like two game-cocks ; and 
 though Sawyer's London agent and I, to say nothing 
 of counsel, endeavoured to hold their ferocity in 
 check, I must confess that a great deal of money 
 was wasted. 
 
 Butterfield, Sawyer's agent, was a youngish man, 
 lean and hungry of aspect, and by nature, almost as 
 combative as Sawyer himself, but he had had a 
 public school education, and he was keenly susceptible 
 to the moral influence which the Court exercises over 
 all its officers, and especially over those who come 
 in direct contact with its machinery. In the case 
 
 165
 
 A Legal Practitioner 
 
 of London agents, who are bound to pass their whole 
 lives before judges and their subordinates, this 
 influence is almost irresistible. The Court loves 
 fair dealing as between man and man; it loves the 
 things that are honest, the things that are just, and 
 it makes no concealment of its preferences. There 
 are many acts, which we, who follow the law in 
 either of its branches, may do without express cen- 
 sure, and doubtless things unlovely, and things of 
 ill-repute are done by one and another of us; but 
 he, who so demeans himself as to get a name for 
 crookedness in any form, had better put on the whole 
 armour of a rhinoceros before venturing into the 
 open to do business with the Court. In a hundred 
 ways, it will be brought home to him that he is on 
 a different footing from his fellows : that they are 
 trusted and he is not. A man must have a forehead 
 of brass to bear this unshaken. 
 
 An old stager like myself, whose position is assured 
 and whose circumstances are easy, is under no tempta- 
 tion to strain the practice, unless he have some unac- 
 countable twist in his moral fibre. His interest is all 
 the other way, for his standing before the Court is a 
 valuable professional asset ; but things are somewhat 
 different with a young practitioner, who is fighting 
 for a livelihood, and to whom the emoluments of the 
 moment are likely to seem all-important. Butterfield, 
 however, had intelligence enough to look ahead, and 
 to see that, in the long run, it would pay him better 
 
 1 66
 
 A Case of Water Rights 
 
 " to stand well with the officials," as the phrase is, 
 than to gratify Sawyer by slavishly following his in- 
 structions, no matter how outrageous they might be. 
 His influence, therefore, was on the side of modera- 
 tion ; and I, for one, do not blame him for calling in 
 the wisdom of the serpent, in order that he might 
 hold his client in check, without imperilling his own 
 bread and cheese. 
 
 "I'm to ask for leave to dig up some pipes in 
 your conservatory," he remarked to me on one 
 occasion. 
 
 " You won't get that ; it's ridiculous ! " 
 
 " I'm not going to try. What would the master 
 think of it ? No fear ! I trotted off to Pickersgill's 
 chambers and told him; then I wrote down that 
 counsel thought it was premature. Only premature, 
 you see that was my tact. If I hear any more of 
 it, I shall have to swear it will irritate the judge : 
 that's my trump card, but one mustn't put it down 
 too often." 
 
 " Sufficient for the day is the evil thereof," 
 said I. 
 
 I dare say Oldroyd was too shrewd a man of the 
 world to suppose that Sawyer needed any stimulus 
 from him ; but, after matters had got.beyond a certain 
 point, the Hon. John was undoubtedly eager to spur 
 on Empson and Dudley. The amendment of the 
 statement of claim had alleged a newly discovered 
 grievance, which it was not easy to rebut. Oldroyd's 
 
 167
 
 A Legal Practitioner 
 
 engineers had reported that the mechanical appliance, 
 which raised water to the Abbey, was so constructed 
 as to deprive the Gut of some portion of the supply, 
 which it had received from time immemorial; and 
 an investigation of the matter seemed to establish 
 the fact that the cause, which had produced this 
 result, was an alteration of comparatively recent date. 
 
 Ellers' legal right to reduce by these means, the 
 flow of water passing down the Gut to Longman's 
 meadows was open to doubt; but the point was a 
 fine one, and counsel leaned to the view that the 
 plaintiff had no remedy. In morals, however, our 
 position was indefensible, for Jobson reported that 
 at a trifling expense such an alteration could be 
 made, as would give the Abbey a full supply without 
 robbing the Gut of a single gallon. 
 
 To do the defendant justice, he saw this, and he 
 was willing to put matters on a right footing, but his 
 lawyers held him back. Empson and Dudley were 
 strongly opposed to the concession being made, and 
 counsel, after some hesitation, came round to the 
 view that to make it might weaken our defence on 
 other points, to say nothing of its having an awk- 
 ward bearing upon the general question of costs. 
 
 I do not think that Ellers was sorry to have 
 these excuses for not altering his machinery he was 
 too wroth with Oldroyd for that and the fact that a 
 weak spot in his defence had been found out by his 
 opponent, made him only the more anxious to put 
 
 1 68
 
 A Case of Water Rights 
 
 himself in the best possible position for winning the 
 action, nevertheless. Our engineers had reported 
 that certain acts or defaults on Oldroyd's part I 
 forget what they were had tended to slightly reduce 
 the supply of water to Longman's meadows ; and on 
 this, some genius had pointed out that, as there must 
 be a consequent reduction of the water passing out 
 of the east end of the Gut back into the brook, Ellers, 
 who owned property lower down, might carry the 
 war into the enemy's country by making this the 
 foundation of an attack upon the plaintiff. 
 
 Even Siderfin, whose reverence for the rights of 
 property the property of those instructing him, be 
 it understood ! was almost superstitious, could not 
 go to this length. He simply laughed when the point 
 was mentioned to him ; and when, later on, he was 
 instructed to advise whether a counter-claim could 
 not be launched, his opinion was some six lines in 
 length, and was barely polite. Unfortunately, the 
 defendant had caught eagerly at the suggestion that 
 the war should be carried into the enemy's country. 
 The phrase captivated him, and it was to satisfy his 
 mind that Siderfin was consulted with all due for- 
 mality. Good phrases are surely, and ever were, 
 very commendable; but they are more valuable as 
 servants than as masters. 
 
 So interested was the Hon. John in the pro- 
 posed counter-claim, that he drove with his daughter 
 to Gray's Inn to learn what Siderfin had advised. 
 
 169
 
 A Legal Practitioner 
 
 The two were staying again at Lord Kerswell's. 
 Peacock showed them in with great dignity ; and I 
 have reason to believe that he spent a long time 
 downstairs admiring the vehicle from the first-floor 
 landing. Coroneted carriages are no great rareties 
 under my windows; but it is not my clients who 
 drive up in them. 
 
 Ellers read the opinion, and put it down without 
 comment. There was really nothing to discuss. He 
 looked so glum, and the silence was so uncomfortable 
 that, in order to break the ice, I began to ask questions 
 about some recent performances of our engineers. 
 
 This led to a general talk about the action. Sud- 
 denly there came a question, which more than once I 
 had seen approaching, and which I had been trying 
 to keep in the background. 
 
 " Do you think I shall win ? " 
 
 "My opinion's hardly worth anything," I began. 
 " I don't pretend to be a lawyer ; and the points of 
 law are unusually difficult " 
 
 "But you've had a great experience of litiga- 
 tion," he interrupted. 
 
 I could not deny this. 
 
 "And my brother, who knows more about law 
 business in London than I do, tells me that your 
 position your position as Mr. Empson's agent, I 
 mean enables you to take a more unprejudiced view 
 than he can. Is that so ? " 
 
 I had to let this, also, pass unchallenged. 
 170
 
 A Case of Water Rights 
 
 " And therefore, I want to know what you think. 
 If there's any reason for your not giving an answer 
 I know there are rules in all professions, and I'm 
 sure you won't suspect me of wanting you to break 
 them," he interpolated, with a smile "if there is 
 any reason of that kind, you must tell me." 
 
 " I'll give you my opinion," said I. " And I can't 
 put it better than in sporting language. I think the 
 odds are in your favour." 
 
 " You don't think it's a certainty ? " 
 
 " I do not." 
 
 " I suppose the expense will be considerable, even 
 if I win ? " he said gloomily. 
 
 " I'm afraid it will." 
 
 Though Trout had told me that Ellers was always 
 inclined to be optimistic, his gloom on the present 
 occasion was easy to account for. Siderfin's opinion 
 had been such a blow that, for the moment, he was 
 disposed to see everything through very dark glasses. 
 
 " But the expense if I win, will be nothing to 
 what it will be if I lose," he said, reviving a little. 
 
 " If Mr. Oldroyd has to pay your costs, it will 
 make a very great difference." 
 
 " My brother thinks it might be worth while to 
 try to come to some agreement, even now," he 
 observed, after a long pause. " I think I should, if 
 the man were a gentleman. But it's out of the 
 question. And there's that blackguard solicitor of 
 his. Did you ever read anything like his letters ? " 
 
 171
 
 A Legal Practitioner 
 
 Ellers asked this wrathfully ; but I thought of the 
 other side of that correspondence, and I held my peace. 
 
 "Disgraceful letters ! " he exclaimed, in the next 
 breath, still more wrathfully. 
 
 " But Uncle Kerswell says you might approach 
 Mr. Oldroyd through somebody else Sir John Trent, 
 for instance," put in his daughter. 
 
 " No, no, no, no, no ! " he said peevishly ; " that 
 would never do. I couldn't ask Trent to approach 
 such a fellow. And I'm sure I'm right about the 
 mill, at all events. I can't give way there. I must 
 remember the inheritance." 
 
 " I wish, father, you'd think about your own peace 
 of mind and not about that," was her answer. " And 
 if we do lose, won't that be still worse for the poor 
 inheritance?" she went on, with a smile that was 
 only half playful. 
 
 " You may have heard that he's building a village 
 hall at Monksmill," said her father, ignoring this and 
 turning to me. 
 
 I had heard of it, and I had wondered how his 
 adversary liked it. Butterfield had once hinted that 
 if Oldroyd had not been buying t land, when Ellers 
 had to strain every nerve to keep what he had in- 
 herited, and particularly, if he had not rebuilt a row 
 of labourers' cottages on the Longman's property, 
 his neighbour would have been less inclined to quarrel 
 with him about the water. Knowing that this must 
 have come from Sawyer, I took it for what it was 
 
 172
 
 A Case of Water Rights 
 
 worth, but the innuendo came to my mind when I 
 heard about the village hall. 
 
 " I hope Constable won't expect me to go and do 
 likewise," he added ; and he said it so good-naturedly 
 that I felt half ashamed of my suspicions. 
 
 " You know they won't expect it," said the girl, 
 reproachfully. 
 
 "You think they'll say I can't afford it, when 
 Monksmill twits them with it ? " 
 
 " I'm sure they will." 
 
 " That's one of the advantages of living in the 
 country," said Ellers, laughing at my surprise ; 
 "your neighbours know so much about your affairs." 
 
 " Has Mr. Oldroyd any political axe to grind ? " I 
 asked. 
 
 "He may have for the boy." 
 
 " I didn't know he had a son." 
 
 " Oh yes ! By-the-by, Doris, it's a long time 
 since we've seen him. We used to come across them 
 pretty often, riding together ; they're a good-looking 
 pair on horseback." 
 
 " I've never heard any harm of that boy," he re- 
 marked, thoughtfully, as he rose from his chair. 
 
 Possibly he was wishing that he had a son, with 
 whom he could ride about, and who would carry on 
 the inheritance, of which he was so tender. I thought 
 of this; and I also thought that he was, at least, 
 fortunate in his daughter. There was no mistaking 
 the affection with which she looked up into his face. 
 
 173
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 AT last the action was ripe for trial, and on a certain 
 Monday afternoon early in June, it stood in the paper 
 for the next day. 
 
 We had a full-dress consultation that afternoon, 
 at the chambers of Mr. Pennell Rye, K.O., the senior 
 of our two leading counsel. Our second leader was 
 my old acquaintance, Mr. Bellamy Orme, K.C. His 
 introduction into the case had been made in a 
 violent hurry. Empson and Dudley had discovered, 
 two or three weeks before, that Sawyer had briefed 
 Frant, a common-law leader, as well as the plaintiffs 
 two Chancery men, and thereupon, they had insisted 
 upon doing the like. The selection of Orme was their 
 own, and had been made notwithstanding a remon- 
 strance on my part. Gladiators of his kind are out 
 of place in a Chancery Court, where there is no jury 
 to be bamboozled. 
 
 It was Orme's newspaper reputation which had 
 led my clients to brief him as our cross-examiner. 
 Moatsbridge is a sleepy place, with not much litiga- 
 tion stirring, and Orme is one of the best advertised 
 men at the Bar. He is before the public all the 
 
 174
 
 A Case of Water Rights 
 
 year round, in some of the weekly newspapers, and 
 when a sensational divorce case is in progress, the 
 picturesque reporter makes an idol of him. At these 
 times, certain of the evening papers blazon forth his 
 performances, trumpet tongued : " K.C. ON THE WAK- 
 
 PATH ! OBMB GETS HOME WITH CABBY ! BELLAMY MAKES 
 
 THE FUR FLY ! " are not unfair examples of their rap- 
 tures. The popular estimate of a barrister or a 
 judge, either, for that matter is nearly always in 
 inverse ratio to his reputation in the profession, but 
 Empson and Dudley were among the uninstructed, 
 and they refused to be enlightened. The prospect of 
 seeing Bellamy Orme at close quarters with Oldroyd's 
 witnesses, and making the fur fly, was too alluring. 
 
 Orme in Lincoln's Inn was a pale shadow of the 
 boisterous, back-slapping Orme of King's Bench Walk. 
 His bearing to Trout and me during the wait in Eye's 
 clerk's room, was distant, not to say chilly, so long as 
 he was within earshot of the rest of the party. But 
 when, by a dexterous manoauvre, he had managed to 
 get the old clerk into a corner to himself, he did 
 prompt homage for the hundred guinea brief. "A 
 very pleasant gentleman, Mr. Orme ; " was Trout's 
 whisper when he came back to my side. 
 
 We were quite a large party in Eye's big room in 
 Stone Buildings. Besides the three counsel, and old 
 Trout and myself, we had Ellers and two of the 
 engineers. The brief was an enormous pile of papers, 
 but it was soon manifest that Eye had mastered it. 
 
 175
 
 A Legal Practitioner 
 
 As he talked to Siderfin, who had been soaking in the 
 litigation for more than a year, one could see that he 
 had not only got up the detail of the case, but had 
 taken a bird's-eye view of it as a whole and had settled 
 in his mind the relative importance of all the parts. 
 Only a first-class man can do this. 
 
 Bellamy Or me chimed in now and then, when the 
 facts were being dealt with ; but, when the law came 
 under discussion, he sat with his great head lolling 
 back on his armchair and his eyes fixed on the ceiling. 
 This was his attitude during most of our hour and a 
 half, for the talk was nearly all on the law. 
 
 It was an intellectual treat to watch Eye as 
 Siderfin fed him with authorities from a long list, 
 which the junior had compiled. Now and then, he 
 would get up and refer to a report, and perhaps, 
 bring the volume to the table, where he kept a store 
 of bookmarkers ; but more often he knew the case as 
 soon as the name was mentioned. "I've got that, 
 Siderfin," he would say, with one of his pleasant, 
 easy laughs and a glance towards a great pile of 
 books, strapped up in readiness for the morrow. Or, 
 "No, no, that won't do ; " would come out with another 
 laugh and a shake of the head. Once or twice, when 
 he rejected some pet authority, which had done duty 
 in Siderfin's opinions, the junior would make a fight 
 for it, but he never carried his point. " I agree ; " 
 was Bye's answer on one of these occasions; "but 
 it's no use with our judge. I've been citing it to 
 
 176
 
 A Case of Water Rights 
 
 Selby any time these ten years. He won't hav it." 
 But generally Siderfin let the authority go overboard 
 without protest, though he pursed up his lips and 
 drew in his lantern jaws, as he sat with the great 
 brief between his feet. He had a respect for his 
 leader's law, and he knew that, as a tactician, he was 
 unapproachable a man who never took a bad point 
 and never missed a good one. 
 
 Rye had been leader of the court for many years. 
 Though he had never been offered a seat upon the 
 Bench, and it was now too late in the day for him to 
 expect one, he had, at least, the satisfaction of know- 
 ing that everybody felt that he had deserved a judge- 
 ship, and that nothing but sheer ill-luck had withheld 
 it. " What a shame it is that X (or Y or Z, as the 
 case might be) should be a judge and Eye shouldn't," 
 was a current saying in the profession. Luck is as 
 important a factor at the end of a barrister's career 
 as it is at the beginning. Everything may be in a 
 man's favour : standing, learning, and the esteem of 
 his fellows, and the coveted judgeship may seem 
 within his grasp ; when lo ! the political machine at 
 Westminster will put forward one of its inexorable 
 demands, and somebody, not worthy to tie his shoe- 
 strings, will go up over his head. 
 
 Rye was getting on in years and he was a man of 
 easy fortune, but a fondness for his judge and his 
 work kept him from retirement. He had a temper 
 that nothing could ruffle, and a mental agility that 
 
 177 N
 
 A Legal Practitioner 
 
 seemed out of character with the curve of his -waist- 
 coat, and the almost sleepy serenity of his face. 
 Learned he was, and a hard worker, though he 
 seemed to take things easily, and he was genial and 
 courteous to all. 
 
 At the consultation that afternoon, he was as 
 much at home with the engineers as he was with 
 Siderfin. Their calculations had no terrors for him. 
 " I've got that among my papers ; haven't I : it comes 
 to so-and-so ; doesn't it ? " he would say, when one 
 or the other of them, in answer to a question from 
 Orme or Siderfin, had made a dive into a black bag, 
 and was beginning to expound the tabular statement, 
 which had been fished out. 
 
 I think Ellers derived immense satisfaction from 
 that consultation. He had been led to expect, possibly 
 by his brother, that Eye would know very little about 
 the case. At the beginning, his astonishment at our 
 leader's intimate knowledge of the facts made his 
 face an amusing study ; and when his look of amaze- 
 ment had worn off, he sat like one entranced, and 
 drank in every word that Eye uttered ; law and all. 
 
 The law of the case was of almost baffling intricacy. 
 I was out of my depth over and over again, as Eye 
 and Siderfin sat discussing the authorities, and more 
 than once I found myself gazing out of window upon 
 the green lawns, with my brains wool-gathering. 
 
 During a moment's silence, Orme electrified us all 
 by emitting a gurgling sound, that was something 
 
 178
 
 A Case of Water Rights 
 
 between a choke and a snort. He instantly jerked 
 himself upright, and in the flurry of the moment, he 
 fixed poor Trout with his eye, as if inviting him, at 
 the peril of his life, to bring forward a charge of 
 drowsiness. Even Ellers smiled ; though from that 
 moment, he conceived a violent antipathy to the huge 
 occupant of the armchair. 
 
 Empson was to have come to town, with Trout as 
 his assistant to help with the documents and shepherd 
 the local witnesses, but at the last moment, the prin- 
 cipal broke down, and was ordered by his doctor to 
 take a month's complete rest. The clerk had, there- 
 fore, to come up without him. 
 
 Accommodation for the witnesses from Constable, 
 some twenty in number, had been engaged at a hotel 
 in Charterhouse Square. Trout had convoyed them 
 thither before attending the consultation, and he ought 
 to have arranged to put up with them. Here, how- 
 ever, the letter of his duty clashed with his domestic 
 affection, for he had a married daughter living at 
 Camberwell. He easily obtained my promise to have 
 the flock looked after ; and on the strength of this, 
 Ellers, who was a very good-natured man, set him 
 free to enjoy the society of his grandchildren. 
 
 It was at about half-past eight that evening that 
 I strolled to Charterhouse Square. In a corner of the 
 smoking-room, an apartment upholstered in plush, 
 I found a group of six or seven elderly men, evidently 
 villagers. No doubt the younger members of the flock 
 
 179
 
 A Legal Practitioner 
 
 had sought amusement outside. The party in the 
 corner looked forlorn and exceedingly discontented. 
 I identified Thrift in a moment a very old man, 
 exactly like one of Leech's superannuated agricultural 
 labourers, except that, instead of a smock frock, he 
 wore a black tail coat with flapped side pockets. His 
 pale blue eye gleamed with the light of battle, as soon 
 as I had made myself known. 
 
 " If so be as you're here from Mr. Trout, we want 
 to have a word with you," he said, crossing his hands 
 over his stick. 
 
 Feeling sure that there was thunder in the air, I 
 seated myself opposite him. The rest of the group 
 moved their chairs so as to form a semicircle round 
 us. I was not sorry that the other occupants 
 of the room were few, and that they were out of 
 earshot. 
 
 The venerable spokesman began by reminding me 
 that he and his companions had been brought away 
 from their homes ; did I understand that ? On my 
 assuring him that I did, he went on to lay down the 
 general proposition that we all liked to be made 
 comfortable. Admitting this, I ventured to inquire 
 whether there had been anything to complain of in 
 their evening meal? Zachary scratched his head, 
 as if searching for a grievance; but the rest took 
 the answer out of his mouth. Everything had been 
 excellent. A little man with stiff, iron-grey whiskers 
 was unstinted in his praise of the catering. 
 
 180
 
 A Case of Water Rights 
 
 " You said yourself, Mr. Thrift, as the little fishes 
 was quite a treat," he urged. 
 
 "I'm not sayin' they warn't better than the beef, 
 Goosey," growled the old man. 
 
 After this, we got to the point. When folks was 
 called away from their homes, and had a long 
 evenin' afore 'em, and they was together-like, it 
 warn't usual to expect 'em to smoke their pipes quite 
 dry, nor yet to ask 'em to put their hands in their 
 own pockets. 
 
 " Certainly not," said I, warmly. 
 
 Then if so be as a drop wasn't amiss, Mr. Thrift 
 was certain sure that the Squire would wish 'em to 
 have it. 
 
 I was equally sure on this point ; but before I could 
 say more, Zachary had resumed his parable, as if 
 fearful lest his grievance should be removed before 
 he had fully aired it. 
 
 " Mr. Goosey here, was sayin' in the railway train, 
 as when his son was brought up to London for a 
 witness, they was allowed two drinks two drinks 
 outside their meals, mind you ! " 
 
 " But it was the old Queen's proctor, as brought 
 them up, Mr. Thrift," interposed Goosey, who seemed 
 to be a man of singularly fair mind. 
 
 The patriarch received this interruption with a face 
 as sour as a crab-apple. 
 
 "Mr. Thrift ain't sayin' our Squire can be ex- 
 pected to do the same as the old Queen, Goosey," 
 
 181
 
 A Legal Practitioner 
 
 put in another villager ; Blencowe the constable, as 
 I afterwards discovered. " 'No drinks was arranged 
 for/ was what the gentleman in the frock coat said. 
 No drinks, at all ! " 
 
 This was put forward as a suggestion for com- 
 promise, but the old gentleman was not inclined to 
 retire one inch from his position. 
 
 " Two drinks won't break the Squire ; they won't 
 look much alongside o' the lawyers' bills," he croaked, 
 with a cock of his eye in my direction. " But, how- 
 sumever that be, we'll see what the Squire says him- 
 self to-morrow mornin'. Failing him, I'll speak to 
 our Miss Doris." 
 
 " You'll get me into trouble," said I, meekly. 
 
 Thrift gave another cock of his eye, and surveyed 
 me with an expression which seemed to say that this 
 was no concern of his. 
 
 " My instructions were to have all proper arrange- 
 ments made for your comfort. It's my fault that the 
 manager didn't know better." 
 
 " The gentleman can't speak fairer than that, 
 Mr. Thrift," suggested Goosey, who was, I think, 
 beginning to suspect that my position in the social 
 scale was somewhat higher than Trout's. 
 
 " What's the gentleman going to do ? " was 
 Zachary's answer. His manner suggested that he 
 saw in the gentleman nothing better than a smooth- 
 tongued hypocrite, who meant to do nothing, and his 
 old face was inscrutable as a mummy's, but he was 
 
 182
 
 A Case of Water Rights 
 
 beginning to fumble in one of his side pockets as if 
 in search of smoking materials. 
 
 "I'm sure there's nobody here who takes more 
 than is good for him," I began, as I looked round the 
 semicircle of honest country faces. "I'm sure Mr. 
 Thrift will tell me that." 
 
 "You can tell the gentleman that, Mr. Thrift." 
 
 It was a fourth villager who spoke this time ; one 
 Sims, the postman. " Sewer-fy, Mr. Thrift ! " he 
 added, persuasively ; seeing that no answer was 
 forthcoming. 
 
 Zachary was filling his pipe from a brass tobacco- 
 box when I made the appeal to him for his corrobora- 
 tion. That appeal went straight to the mark. Slowly 
 and deliberately he lit his pipe when he had put it 
 between his lips. Slowly and deliberately he puffed 
 at it as he cast his eye round the semicircle. It 
 lingered for a moment when it reached the face of 
 the last speaker, and every man held his breath. 
 But charity prevailed. He passed on to the next 
 face; and when the survey was complete, he gave 
 everybody a clean bill of health. 
 
 " There aren't one ; not one ! " he said solemnly. 
 
 "Then I'm sure Mr. Ellers would wish you to 
 call for what you want," said I, inwardly resolving 
 to have the hotel bill sent to me every morning. 
 " I'll see that the manager understands. I'll inter- 
 view him at once." 
 
 When I came back from the office, it was evident 
 183
 
 A Legal Practitioner 
 
 that some conflict with Zachary had been in progress 
 during my absence. 
 
 " I aren't a-goin' to do it : right's right ! you 
 always was a fool, Goosey," fell on my ear as I 
 approached the corner. 
 
 " We shouldn't like the Squire to think as we was 
 in any way discontented," said Goosey. 
 
 " No ! No ! No ! " came from all the rest, Zachary 
 excepted. 
 
 " We was only backin'-up Mr. Thrift," said Sims, 
 the postman, who was evidently something of a time- 
 server. Zachary compressed his lips upon the stem 
 of his pipe, but said nothing. 
 
 " But Mr. Thrift was quite right," said I. 
 
 "We thought it better to speak out." This was 
 Goosey. 
 
 "Arn't that what God A'mighty give us our 
 tongues for ? " rasped out the old man. 
 
 " Don't you think you'd all be more comfortable if 
 you had a room to yourselves ? " I asked, struck by a 
 sudden suspicion that the party was finding the plush 
 upholstery somewhat overpowering. "When you 
 coaie to talk the case over among yourselves, you won't 
 want to be overheard," I added mysteriously. Even 
 Zachary's parchmenty face brightened as I spoke. 
 
 There was no difficulty in meeting their wishes. 
 The manager had an excellent room on the first floor, 
 which was quite at our service. We went up in a body 
 and inspected it. It was of a good size ; oilclothed all 
 
 184
 
 A Case of Water Rights 
 
 over, and boasting a piano : a club-room, evidently. 
 Thrift surveyed it, leaning on his stick, and admitted 
 that it would do. The party ranged themselves round 
 the stove; Zachary, in an armchair in the middle, 
 puffed at his pipe with a self-complacency not far 
 removed from arrogance. 
 
 By this time I was basking in the sunshine of 
 a well-earned popularity, and the fact that Goosey's 
 chair-back gave way, enabled me to depart in a blaze 
 of triumph. 
 
 " No doubt Mr. Thrift and his grandson can mend 
 it," said I " if they've brought their saw with them." 
 
 The job was one that called for nothing more than 
 a glue-pot, but a man must not stick at trifles when 
 he means to be witty. The success of the joke 
 was not instantaneous, but it was genuine and 
 lasting. 
 
 The waiter appeared as I was taking my leave, 
 and stationed himself, expectant, beside the middle 
 chair. Zachary looked askance at him and pondered. 
 
 " I'll take a drop of gin," he said, smacking his 
 lips ; " it's a merry-go-down as I'm a-wantin' to-night. 
 You'tt be callin' for a drop of ale, Goosey," he added, 
 with a sour significance that was not lost upon the 
 company. 
 
 185
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 I MAINTAIN that it is a fresh and leafy walk from 
 Gray's Inn Square to the Courts on a morning in 
 early June ; let him laugh who will ! 
 
 There are young planes in the square, and above 
 the hall roof there are the topmost branches of the 
 old planes on the other side. Turning to the right, 
 one passes the gardens, stretching far enough away 
 to show towards the north end, the faint blue 
 vapour of country distances. I will admit that 
 neither Warwick Court, nor Holborn, as one crosses 
 over to Chancery Lane, nor the lane itself, can lay 
 claim to anything sylvan. But two minutes after 
 leaving Gray's Inn gardens behind, a man can reach 
 Stone Buildings and see the trees of Lincoln's Inn 
 ahead of him. And for the rest of his walk through 
 the Inn past the chapel, past the Old Hall, and 
 round two sides of New Square it is foliage all the 
 way. Then, he has but to dive through number seven 
 of the square, and the north entrance to the Courts is 
 right in front of him, on the other side of Carey Street. 
 
 The Royal Courts of Justice are a busy hive when 
 half-past ten is drawing near. Through the corridors, 
 
 1 86
 
 A Case of Water Rights 
 
 with their faint odour of eucalyptus, pass all sorts and 
 conditions of men ; barristers of every type, many of 
 them moving briskly, to reach their places in time 
 for the usher's " Silence ! Silence ! " which heralds the 
 entrance of the judge ; solicitors and their clients 
 apparently a little disputatious in some instances 
 witnesses staring round them at the unaccustomed 
 scene, and not rarely wandering about like sheep 
 astray; barristers' clerks and boys, bending under 
 the weight of brief-bags and volumes of reports ; 
 solicitors' clerks of every grade, and the great un- 
 classible residuum ; the people to whom a law court is 
 the best of all free shows. Under the clock, in the 
 corridor which gives upon the north balcony of the 
 great central hall, loiter the shorthand writers ; expert 
 labourers standing in the market-place ; good men 
 and trusty, with a hawk eye for a possible employer. 
 
 But though the life, surging in courts and corri- 
 dors is of to-day, and an atmosphere of the twentieth 
 century is over all, no man in whom there burns a 
 spark of the historic sense, can breathe that atmosphere 
 and think only of the present. The majesty of the 
 surroundings will bring home to him the antiquity and 
 the continuity of the law of England, and will summon 
 up a cloud of memories. He will feel that the courts 
 of King Edward are but a link in a chain ; a chain 
 which has for other of its links, the laws of Alfred, 
 the grey hall of Eufus, the Magna Charta, and the 
 Habeas Corpus. 
 
 187
 
 A Legal Practitioner 
 
 Half-past ten was so nigh as I passed in from 
 Carey Street, on the morning when Oldroyd v. Ellers 
 stood in the paper for the first time, that the hum and 
 bustle of the corridors had died down. In the court 
 to which I made my way, there was still a buzz of 
 talk, and much arranging of papers, and running to 
 and fro with bags and books ; but the hand of the 
 clock was trembling upon the verge of the half-hour, 
 and one knew that in his room, giving upon the long 
 silent corridor behind the bench, Mr. Justice Selby 
 had changed his coat and waistcoat and donned his 
 robes, and was all ready to make his entrance. 
 Presently he came in, fresh and brisk; and after 
 bowing to the Bar and to the registrar, he took his 
 seat and opened his note-book. A minute later the 
 trial of Oldroyd v. Ellers had begun. 
 
 Peacock had kept a place for me in the "well," 
 just in front of Eye and a little to the right of Orme. 
 Trout was on my left, with a pile of papers breast- 
 high before him, and three or four boxes on the floor. 
 Ellers was on his left. I had had the forethought 
 to arrange the order of our seats ; I like to have a 
 buffer between myself and my litigant, whenever 
 feasible. Messrs. Empson and Dudley's representa- 
 tive was only too pleased to occupy the place of 
 honour next to the client. Miss Ellers was in the 
 public gallery high up at the back of the court. 
 
 Mr. Slocombe, K.C., the senior of Oldroyd's three 
 counsel, after going at some length into the facts, 
 
 188
 
 A Case of Water Rights 
 
 went on to say that, with his lordship's permission, 
 he proposed to submit a few propositions of law 
 before calling his witnesses. These propositions 
 proved to be about twelve in number, and they in- 
 volved much reference to authority. It was soon 
 manifest that no witnesses would be called that day. 
 
 On turning my head to get a view of the body of 
 the court, I saw that Tommy Murchison had come 
 down to support me, and had introduced himself to 
 Thrift. The old man was sitting at the end of one of 
 the back rows. Goosey was beside him, and the rest 
 of our village witnesses were in their neighbourhood. 
 On the other side of the court sat a solid cohort of 
 Oldroyd's supporters. There seemed to be an in- 
 visible line drawn down the middle of the rows occu- 
 pied by the two forces; and it was evident that a 
 tacit arrangement had been come to that neither of 
 them should encroach within a foot of it. Oldroyd's 
 witnesses were even more numerous than ours. I 
 could identify Crimp the blacksmith ; a burly giant 
 with a gleaming set of teeth. He seemed to diffuse 
 good-humour all around him; but even he could 
 not cast an eye across the invisible barrier with- 
 out, at once, betraying symptoms of hostility and 
 defiance. 
 
 When I next looked round, Tommy Murchison 
 was seated between Thrift and Goosey. He was 
 evidently explaining the proceedings to them, and 
 there was a mischievous light in his blue eyes. I 
 
 189
 
 A Legal Practitioner 
 
 wondered how the old man would receive the inven- 
 tions of Tommy's fertile brain. A little later, how- 
 ever, I could see that it was only Goosey who was being 
 victimized. Tommy was whispering in his ear, and 
 he was listening with his eyes glued upon Slocombe, 
 and his iron-grey whiskers bristling with horror. 
 There was nothing in the learned counsel's record or 
 personal appearance to justify such an emotion as 
 this, and his occupation for the time being seemed 
 innocence itself; he was reading and expounding 
 Lord Wensleydale's judgment in Embrey v. Owen. I 
 thought I saw Thomas give Zachary a nudge, as if to 
 draw attention to Goosey's horrified countenance ; and 
 beyond a doubt, the old man cocked his eye towards 
 his comrade ; and though the nut-cracker face never 
 relaxed, he seemed to find enjoyment in the spectacle. 
 
 When one o'clock was approaching, the proposi- 
 tions of law were still in course of statement, and a 
 rampart of open reports was steadily rising round 
 the judge. I was consoling myself with the reflection 
 that the court would rise for lunch in half an hour, 
 when Bye passed a note to me. It came from my 
 articled clerk, and it ran as follows : " Is there any 
 reason why the witnesses shouldn't go to lunch ? They 
 want to have time for a smoke afterwards. I can see 
 to them." 
 
 Trout caught at the suggestion, and Ellers, who 
 also read the note, laughed heartily. My nodded 
 "Yes" was followed by a great shuffling of feet in 
 
 190
 
 A Case of Water Rights 
 
 the background, and a moment later, our cohort was 
 tramping out ; Tommy leading, with Zachary on his 
 arm. The Oldroyd phalanx followed them with 
 envious eyes. 
 
 There was another mighty trampling when our 
 witnesses came back. This was about a quarter of an 
 hour after the court had returned from lunch. They 
 cast glances of triumph across the barrier line as 
 they took their seats; two or three of the younger 
 ones puffing derisively at imaginary pipes. Oldroyd's 
 men had not been released until one-thirty, and they 
 were on duty again by two o'clock. A certain tendency 
 to somnolence was pretty general in both camps 
 during the afternoon. Zachary slept peacefully from 
 two-thirty until the court rose. Slocombe was still 
 stating and supporting the propositions of law. 
 
 The legal arguments continued through the whole 
 of the second day; for when Slocombe had run 
 down, and Pickersgill, Oldroyd's Chancery junior, 
 after premising that he had only a very few words 
 to add to his friend, Mr. Slocombe's, argument, had 
 addressed the court for an wr-strewn hour and a half, 
 Eye was invited to have an innings, and he was not 
 out when four o'clock arrived. 
 
 Our witnesses, shepherded by Tommy, had taken 
 a prolonged lunchtime ; and Oldroyd's had done the 
 like under the superintendence of Sawyer's clerk. 
 Butterfield told me that they had insisted upon being 
 put upon an equal footing with the enemy. The 
 
 191
 
 A Legal Practitioner 
 
 refectory of Tommy's party was a gothic apartment 
 leading out of the refreshment bar, hard by the court. 
 The other party went elsewhere; the ill-feeling 
 between the two villages made it unadvisable for 
 the rival hosts to be thrown together more than was 
 absolutely necessary. The expert witnesses on both 
 sides were of course, on the best of terms. 
 
 As Trout was now firmly established in his 
 daughter's house, I thought it well, after dinner that 
 evening, to see how things were going on in Charter- 
 house Square. So far, the drink bill had been quite 
 satisfactory. The club-room was entered through 
 a lobby with a glass door. Here I paused to make 
 a preliminary survey of my flock. 
 
 The homelike appearance of the room came upon 
 me as a surprise. Hats and coats were hanging 
 round the walls ; there were books and news- 
 papers strewn about ; a small fire was burning 
 in the stove, and a bagatelle-board was open upon 
 the table. Nobody was playing, however, though the 
 room could boast an almost full muster of the cohort. 
 Zachary, with the others grouped about him, sat in 
 his armchair; his feet encased in enormous carpet 
 slippers. A cloud of tobacco hung over the party ; 
 satisfaction beamed from every countenance, and 
 every man's gaze was directed to the piano. The 
 object of all this interest was Mr. Thomas Murchison 
 fair-haired Tommy, who was sitting with his hands 
 still upon the keys, and a happy face turned towards 
 
 192
 
 A Case of Water Rights 
 
 his audience. I had heard a clapping of hands and 
 the last notes of a tune, as I turned out of the 
 passage into the lobby. 
 
 " Let's have 'un again, Master Tommy ; let's have 
 'un again, right through ! " 
 
 It was Zachary who spoke a grinning, animated 
 Zachary ; so different from the mummified crab-apple 
 of two evenings before. 
 
 " Eight you are, uncle ! " came from the piano, 
 and a prelude, which I recognized, rose from the keys. 
 " Here's to the Maiden of Bashful Fifteen ! " was the 
 tune. 
 
 My entrance brought the music to a stop. Tommy 
 jumped up to welcome me, but upon the rest of the 
 company I descended like a wet blanket. The 
 delighted grin faded from off Zachary's face, and all 
 the " good evenings," with which I was greeted, rang 
 miserably hollow. My popularity of Monday did not 
 avail me one whit. Of the six or seven whom I had 
 then benefited, the only one who received me with 
 any approach to real cordiality was Goosey. 
 
 Possibly it was tact, and not mischief, which had 
 prompted Tommy to call on me for a song. The ab- 
 surdity of this request staggered me for a moment, 
 for I was not conscious of having ever uplifted my 
 voice among the minstrels; but Tommy began to 
 play "The Miller of the Dee," and certain happy 
 years, when he was a baby and I used to sing it to 
 him in the nursery, came back to me. 
 
 193 o
 
 A Legal Practitioner 
 
 I felt that I must either depart, or do something 
 to put the company at its ease ; and the fact was, I 
 wanted to stop. I was interested in the bit of village 
 life, transplanted into Charterhouse Square, which I 
 had just stumbled upon ; and, to tell the whole truth, 
 the temptation of hearing Tommy sing is one that I 
 can never resist. There are notes in his voice, which 
 have in them the sound of a voice that is still ; an 
 echo of the days that are no more. 
 
 "Let me run through it to myself," said I, cross- 
 ing the Eubicon. 
 
 The next moment I had repented me of my rash- 
 ness, but it was too late to draw back. Every one 
 seemed to know the tune. There was a clapping of 
 hands, and " That's for you, Mr. Truepenny ! That's 
 for you, miller ! " sounded from all sides. The tenant 
 of Constable Mill a burly man, something like Crimp, 
 the Monksmill blacksmith grinned his appreciation 
 of the compliment, and took the liberty of drinking 
 my health. At this, a good many other glasses were 
 lifted in my honour. 
 
 I have said above that Tommy may have called 
 for the song in good faith, but I could find no excuse 
 for his inducing the company to suppose that I had 
 a weakness for airing my voice in public, and that I 
 should have been much chagrined if an opportunity of 
 gratifying this ridiculous vanity had not been offered 
 me. This he did by quips, and cranks, and innuendoes, 
 while I was struggling to recall my words. 
 
 194
 
 A Case of Water Rights 
 
 " The Miller of the Dee " was sung at last. I was 
 glad when the ordeal was over ; and I must confess 
 that I should have felt better satisfied if my memory 
 had proved less treacherous, and if, after my first 
 hiatus, a member of the audience had not hastened 
 to prompt me whenever I made a pause. It was, too, 
 unlucky that now and again, the accompanist should 
 have lost control of his instrument ; for there was no 
 denying that my ditty had suffered almost as much 
 from these lapses on his part as it had from my own 
 defaults, or the misdirected benevolence of Master 
 Blencowe. And again, " The Miller of the Dee " is 
 not a comic song ; and, therefore, it had been of no 
 encouragement to me, to behold the accompanist in 
 agonies of suppressed laughter whenever the prompter 
 put me out. 
 
 But, however deplorable my effort may have been 
 from an artistic point of view, I felt that it had 
 answered its purpose. Now I could sit me down, and 
 smoke my pipe among the good people of Constable- 
 Abbotts, without feeling that I was a kill-joy. 
 
 They were polite enough to give me a hearty round 
 of applause when the end was reached ; and upon my 
 regretting that I had not done a fine old song more 
 justice, Sims assured me that he had heard it sung 
 worse ay, that he had, many and many a time! 
 Goosey said that he had the words " somewheres at 
 home," and he promised that his granddaughter 
 should copy them out for me on his return. Zachary 
 
 195
 
 A Legal Practitioner 
 
 uttered neither praise nor blame. "Now, Master 
 Tommy," was all that he said ; and thereupon every 
 man's face lit up and became joyous. 
 
 " Here's to the maiden of bashful fifteen ; 
 Here's to the widow of fifty ; 
 Here's to the flaunting extravagant quean, 
 And here's to the housewife that's thrifty." 
 
 With Tommy's sweet, fresh voice soaring upward 
 in the old song, the good folk might well look happy ! 
 The chorus came with a crash, and every glass went 
 up with it 
 
 " Let the toast pass I 
 Drink to the lass I 
 I'll warrant she'll prove an excuse for the glass." 
 
 Zachary seemed half beside himself as he joined 
 in. His cracked voice rose high above the others, 
 and the leg which hung crossed over its fellow beat 
 time, while his head and right hand both wagged in 
 unison. The grin upon his face during Tommy's 
 solo, baffled description. 
 
 " The best song I ever heered ; I could listen to 
 'un all night that I could, Master Tommy!" he 
 cried, when the last notes had died away; and I 
 could see that his old eyes were resting upon the boy 
 with a sort of parental fondness. 
 
 " And to think of him a-bein* that ter'ble fond 
 o' the wummin," he chuckled, turning to Goosey and 
 me, with a leer that laid bare the two old tushes yet 
 remaining to him. 
 
 The little man with the grey whiskers was about 
 196
 
 A Case of Water Rights 
 
 to say something ; but he thought better of it, and 
 took a long pull at his pipe instead. 
 
 Tommy blushed at finding himself thus identified 
 with his poet. 
 
 " But I was only singing it," he said, laughing. 
 
 Zachary took no notice of this. " I've had fower 
 wives myself, Master Tommy," he went on, proudly ; 
 all agog to make Thomas understand that he, too, 
 was no misogamist. 
 
 .'-'You're like the man in the song, Mr. Thrift," 
 put in the miller 
 
 " ' If I survive, 
 
 Then I'll have five.' 
 
 That's what he said." 
 
 "Good luck to *un!" shrieked the old man, 
 slapping the arm of his chair 
 
 " ' If I survive, 
 
 Then Fll have five. 1 " 
 
 "But you ain't likely to survive," remonstrated 
 the ever-faithful Goosey. " Your missis ; why bless 
 me ! she must be a matter o' forty year younger than 
 you be, Mr. Thrift." 
 
 "Who put that into your silly head ?" demanded 
 the other, in high dudgeon. " Ain't I a matter o* 
 twenty or five-and-twenty year older than you ? " 
 
 " But it was your missis, not me " began 
 
 Goosey, in no wise ruffled by the slight cast upon his 
 intelligence, and desperately anxious to follow the 
 drift of his friend's argument. 
 
 197
 
 A Legal Practitioner 
 
 "Who wants to listen to your cacklin'; with 
 Master Tommy at the pianner?" snapped the 
 patriarch. " You give us a song, miller ! ' The girl 
 I left behind me in the land where I was born.' 
 That's a good song ! Master Tommy'll like that." 
 
 Tommy soon picked up the tune; and to his 
 accompaniment, we all sang the chorus of " The Old 
 Emigrant," solemnly and in very slow time 
 
 " Oh, the long, long English twilight, and the redness of the morn 1 
 Oh, the may trees in the hedgerows and the poppies in the corn, 
 And the girl I left behind me in the land where I was born I " 
 
 "He was a-sheep-farmin' in Orstralia. That's 
 what he was a-doin'. Same as my newy," said 
 Thrift, when the song was done. 
 
 He was filling his pipe as he spoke. 
 
 " You mind him ; don't you, Goosey ? " he added, 
 after he had lit up. 
 
 But the conscientious Goosey was too busy weigh- 
 ing the evidence of the farmer's domicile, to notice 
 this inquiry. 
 
 "I'm not sayin' it wasn't Orstralia, Mr. Thrift," 
 he said humbly, as soon as he had completed a 
 mental review of the song ; " I dare say it was 
 Orstralia ; only it don't say so do it, now ? " 
 
 Luckily for him, Zachary had lost all interest in 
 the subject. He was listening, with his head on one 
 side, to Tommy, who was picking out a tune with two 
 fingers. 
 
 198
 
 A Case of Water Rights 
 
 "He's 'The Lincolnshire Turnip Hoer!' he's 
 ' The Lincolnshire Turnip Hoer ! ' that's what he is," 
 shrilled the old man in a tone of delighted recog- 
 nition ; " I haven't heered 'un since I was a boy 
 
 " ' The vlie : the vlie ! 
 
 The vlie is on the turmut, 
 
 And it's all my eye, for you to try 
 
 To get him off the turmut. 1 " 
 
 His old voice rose and fell in a quaver, and he 
 marked the time by a slow, drawing movement of 
 both hands. 
 
 Tommy sang " The Turnip Hoer ; " and when the 
 chorus came, the villagers all plied imaginary hoes ; 
 Thrift acting as fugleman. 
 
 " Turnips too ! Think of 'un knowing about 
 turnips, and him a lawyer ! It's won'erful ! Won- 
 'erful!" 
 
 The old man said this with uplifted hand, and an 
 adoring look into Tommy's face. The object of all 
 this homage played the chorus through once again, 
 and then drew a chair close up to his worshipper. 
 
 I had turned to the miller, and asked him a ques- 
 tion about the alleged raising of his weir. This refer- 
 ence to the action was like putting fire to tow. Half a 
 dozen men answered me offhand, and another half- 
 dozen struck in when I pushed my inquiry a little 
 further. Hardly a man could sit in his chair, but 
 Zachary, the most enthusiastic partisan of all, paid 
 no heed. He was wholly absorbed in his conversation 
 
 199
 
 'A Legal Practitioner 
 
 with Tommy. The subject of their talk was the culti- 
 vation and preservation of the potato. 
 
 After this, Jarvis, an under-keeper, gave us a song ; 
 a dreadful old music-hall song, "He's a Masher, 
 but his Mother keeps a Mangle." Then, Ben Thrift, 
 in whose rosy, sunburnt countenance one could trace 
 a dim resemblance to Zachary's inscrutable old face, 
 favoured us with " Tom Bowling." 
 
 " Now we're ready for yowr song, uncle," said 
 Thomas, coaxingly. 
 
 " Noa, noa," answered the patriach, smiling, and 
 shaking his head. 
 
 "Just one!" urged Tommy. "Just one little 
 one ! " 
 
 " Noa, noa ! " repeated Thrift, but with a leer, 
 that was an invitation to the other to stick to him. 
 " Noa, noa, Master Tommy ! " 
 
 But the excellent Goosey was a stranger to all 
 such wiles as these. In the innocence of his heart, 
 he hastened to support his friend. 
 
 "It ain't no kindness to press him, sir," he 
 remarked. " It's askin' an old gentleman to do what 
 he can't do. Why, bless me ! Mr. Thrift's singin' 
 days was over long afore you was born." 
 
 Zachary fixed him with his eye, but said nothing. 
 Then he turned towards grandson Ben, and meditated. 
 
 " Can I, think ye ? " he asked, at length. 
 
 Benjamin knew what was expected of him, but he 
 had the family credit to consider. 
 
 200
 
 A Case of Water Rights 
 
 " N-oa," he answered slowly. 
 
 "Then I'll sing 'Sergeant Cawmill,' was the 
 defiant retort. 
 
 And sing it he did, nine or ten verses in all, and 
 the quavering old voice held out to the end. The 
 song told of how, in the days when Napoleon's army 
 of invasion was at Boulogne, a redoubtable Scottish 
 sergeant called out his section of Hampshire volun- 
 teers upon a fictitious alarm, and how, having 
 marched them for miles and spread them about a 
 wood, with instructions to be ready, he himself 
 strolled home to make love to their sweethearts. 
 Such was the fable, which required for its develop- 
 ment some ten eight-line verses, together with a 
 chorus, which, relevant or irrelevant, came in after 
 every one of them 
 
 " A-rub, a-dub, a-doo ! 
 We're marchin 1 two and two : 
 There's owd Phil Thompson fra' the sawmill ; 
 There's Peters and there's Holt, 
 There's Rogers and there's Bolt, 
 And there's SAIRGEANT ALISTEB MACPHAIBBON CAWMILI,." 
 
 There was always a screech in the last line ; but 
 the old man's vitality was so amazing, that he 
 seemed none the worse for his exertions. 
 
 " I done him ! " he exclaimed, with a triumphant 
 chuckle, and a thump of his stick. " I done him, 
 Goosey ! " 
 
 The exemplary moderation of the hotel drink bill 
 was explained to me before the gathering broke up. 
 
 20 1
 
 A Legal Practitioner 
 
 Soon after " Sergeant Cawmill," Sims began to edge 
 towards the mantelpiece. Zachary's eye was upon 
 him, but the old man said nothing until the other's 
 hand was upon the bell rope. 
 
 " You've had your two, Sims," he snarled. 
 
 "But I'm that dry, Mr. Thrift ; and I've just got 
 a noo pipe look here ! " And Sims held out a long 
 show- white churchwarden. 
 
 " If you must have a drop, you take a drink out 
 o' Goosey's glass ; he's got plenty." 
 
 " Be fair, Sims ! I've been savin' it up for the 
 last," said poor Goosey, as he passed over the 
 tumbler. 
 
 We had " Merrie Sherwood " for the last song ; 
 and Tommy's singing of that wail of the town-dweller 
 for the countryside was enough to bring tears into 
 the eyes of Dr. Johnson himself. Goosey, whose 
 occupation lay in the Constable woods, was so moved 
 that he could not trust himself to join in the chorus. 
 The others sang it with a subdued fervour that was 
 quite pathetic 
 
 " Country-born and country-bred, 
 Are we sleeping ; are we dead ? 
 I am waiting, O my children I comes the call 
 From the woodlands far away ; 
 And we'll answer and obey ; 
 
 And we'll meet in Merrie Sherwood, after all after all 
 We'll be happy, happy, happy, after all I " 
 
 "You aren't a-singin', Goosey," croaked Zachary, 
 with a poke of his stick in the poor man's ribs. 
 
 202
 
 A Case of Water Rights 
 
 Goosey's autocrat took leave of Tommy as if he 
 could hardly bear to part with him. He insisted on 
 seeing us downstairs; hanging on the boy's arm, 
 and discoursing of " taters " all the way. 
 
 "You must harvest 'un yourself; you must do it 
 yourself. Spread 'un out in the sun for one day. 
 Then put 'un in the bin along of your slack lime 
 plenty o' slack lime, Master Tommy! and they'll 
 keep beautiful ; beautiful they will ! " 
 
 203
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 ON the third day of the trial, Oldroyd's first witness 
 was put into the box. This was Hemmingway, a 
 Yorkshire engineer and a personal friend of the 
 plaintiff. For the next three hours it rained tabular 
 statements, and the court wallowed in figures. Orme's 
 attempt to break the witness down was such a failure 
 that Eye took the cross-examination of the rest of 
 the plaintiffs engineers into his own hands. The 
 gladiator from King's Bench Walk was not used to 
 expert witnesses, and the weapons which might have 
 proved effective in the case of a police constable, or 
 a private detective, or even a follower of the stage 
 or the turf, broke harmless against Hemmingway's 
 armour of technical knowledge, rough humour, and 
 unbounded self-esteem. 
 
 " Now, let's take a common-sense view," suggested 
 the witness at one stage of the tussle. " What a 
 machine can do one day, it can do another. It's 
 not like a man." 
 
 At a later stage, he gave a long technical answer, 
 and then held up a penny manual. " It's all here 
 Mr. Orme. It's what the children use in our 
 schools," said he. 
 
 204
 
 A Case of Water Rights 
 
 Orme blustered and blundered on for some time, 
 but at last he fairly lost his temper; and when 
 Hemmingway began to dissect a question before 
 answering it, the gladiator appealed to Csesar. 
 
 " You'd better answer the question, and discuss 
 it with Mr. Orme afterwards," said Selby, briskly, 
 with the slight smack of the lips which was one of 
 his characteristics. 
 
 Things went more smoothly for a few minutes, 
 but presently there was another tussle; and this 
 time all the honours remained with the witness. 
 
 " Give me an answer, sir ; yes or no ! " thundered 
 Orme. 
 
 The Yorkshireman put on an expression of abject 
 helplessness, and he stretched out both hands as if 
 pleading for mercy. 
 
 "But I can't answer it, Mr. Orme. How can I? 
 It's asking me why water always runs uphill." 
 
 After this, Ellers was so anxious that Orme should 
 take no more expert witnesses that I felt bound to 
 give Eye a hint on the subject. My whispered com- 
 munication was received with a slight droop of one 
 eyelid, and a ghost of a half-smile. 
 
 "What will Orme say?" he whispered back 
 under cover of his hand ; but I saw that he meant 
 to follow Ellers' wishes. Probably he felt that he 
 would be failing in his duty to the client if he 
 did not. 
 
 My belief is that Orme was well pleased when he 
 205
 
 A Legal Practitioner 
 
 found that his leader meant to cross-examine the 
 rest of the engineers. A big brief in chancery was 
 a windfall which he had never had before, and which 
 he was never likely to have again, and there was no 
 advertisement of the kind he valued, to be got out 
 of Oldroyd v. Ellen. Under the circumstances, it 
 probably suited him very well to sprawl within the 
 bar of Selby's court, day after day, doing nothing. 
 
 "It's the softest job I ever had in my life," he 
 said to me one evening at the club. " It isn't often 
 I get a chance of doing a bit of sugaring ; I earn my 
 bread in the sweat of my brow. But here's Eye earn- 
 ing it for me. He seems fond of the labouring oar." 
 
 "He's pulling it, anyhow," said I, laughing. 
 
 "More power to his elbow! say I. He can do 
 my work shure and he's welcome to it ! but " here 
 the big man winked and put his finger to his nose 
 "he can't draw my fees. One hundred guineas on 
 the brief, twenty a day, and four:consultations, down 
 to now ! No, no ! that goes into my little money-box ; 
 that goes here," quoth Bellamy Orme, slapping his 
 pocket and rumbling with laughter. 
 
 The fifth day of the trial was over when this was 
 said, but the plaintiff's case gave no sign of finish- 
 ing. Oldroyd had not proved anything against us 
 that could be called a surprise, and as regards his 
 most important grievance the diversion of water near 
 the mill our legal position still seemed a strong one. 
 But as witness after witness went on to prove how 
 
 206
 
 A Case of Water Rights 
 
 seriously the alterations made of recent years, both 
 at the mill and at the intake of the goit, had 
 diminished the supply to Monksmill House and Long- 
 man's meadows, one felt an uncomfortable foreboding 
 that such a wrong had been inflicted as the law would 
 find some means of remedying ; and as day after day 
 went by, the thought of what the losing party would 
 have to pay in costs, grew more and more oppressive. 
 But it was of no use to worry over the state of affairs ; 
 for the wheels of litigation, once started, must grind on 
 to the end, unless one party or the other can and will 
 take steps to stop them. In the present case, neither 
 plaintiff nor defendant was ready or willing to make 
 an offer of compromise ; and therefore the future 
 seemed to promise nothing better than a fight to the 
 bitter end a continuance of the trial over a long 
 succession of days at an expenditure in costs quite 
 frightful to contemplate ; then a judgment for one 
 party or the other, and after that, very likely, an 
 appeal. 
 
 I thought of these things one afternoon two days 
 later, as I sat going through and rearranging a mass 
 of documents which had fallen into disorder. The 
 plaintiff's case was still unfinished in the court hard 
 by ; and the evidence of the witness then under ex- 
 amination had proved so unusually tedious and had 
 threatened to last for so long that I had been thank- 
 ful to escape for a brief interval. I knew that I should 
 not be wanted for the next hour. 
 
 207
 
 A Legal Practitioner 
 
 I was arranging the documents in a room which 
 had been engaged on the defendant's behalf for the 
 storage of our papers during the trial, and for the 
 transaction of any little matters of business which 
 could not be conveniently dealt with outside. The 
 Eoyal Courts of Justice are honeycombed with rooms 
 like this ; unknown to all but the initiated. Honey- 
 combed, too, with rooms which even the initiated 
 rarely enter dark chambers in the basement, where 
 bookbinders are at work, and light chambers high up 
 under the roof, where the scriveners ply their calling. 
 And there are mysterious winding staircases and dim 
 unfrequented passages, worthy of a medieval fortress. 
 Jurors and witnesses blunder into them sometimes, 
 and wander helplessly until they find a guide, but the 
 initiated know them as mightily convenient short 
 cuts from one part of the labyrinth to another. 
 
 The documents were arranged at last, and I thought 
 that I could not better fill up the rest of my hour 
 than by strolling to the Temple fountain. 
 
 There are many staircases leading down from the 
 court corridors to the central hall ; so many, indeed, 
 that, old stager though I am, I do not know them all. 
 But I took none of these, for near our room, and 
 close beside Mr. Justice Selby's court, was a better 
 way ; a short cut to the long vaulted corridor below, 
 which runs at right angles to the hall, and is divided 
 from it by iron gates, always open during business 
 hours. I have a fondness for this corridor because the 
 
 208
 
 A Case of Water Rights 
 
 place is like a cathedral crypt, with its dim religious 
 light and the double row of white Norman pillars, 
 which support the red-brick vaulting of the roof. The 
 public knows it not, and the profession uses it so 
 little that one may pass along it a dozen times a day, 
 and, save for an occasional orderly on duty, one may 
 always find it empty. 
 
 This afternoon, however, two outsiders had entered 
 into this solitude. They were a man and woman ; 
 and, though I could not see them distinctly, it was 
 plain that they were mere saunterers, who were using 
 the place as a promenade. " They've strolled through 
 from here," thought I, as I turned into the hall. 
 
 There was a consultation in Stone Buildings after 
 the Court rose that afternoon. We had already 
 assembled there so often that the room was beginning 
 to be as familiar to me as my own. The Hon. John 
 was gloomy ; for he saw as well as I did, that for 
 some reason or other, Eye was not satisfied with the 
 course which things had taken that day. Siderfin of 
 the lantern jaws, was too much wrapped up in the 
 authorities, to pay much heed to what may be called 
 the human nature side of the trial, but his leader was 
 a man of the world. Eye knew, too, that we had to 
 deal with a judge who was no mere case-lawyer ; and 
 he was beginning to fear that, having regard to the 
 plaintiff's evidence, Selby would feel bound to recon- 
 sider the older authorities in the light of the conditions 
 and requirements of the present day, and, without 
 
 209 p
 
 \ 
 
 A Legal Practitioner 
 
 doing violence to any well-established principle of law, 
 
 he might be able to give the plaintiff a good deal of 
 
 the relief asked for. 
 
 " We must see how it reads as a whole," he said, 
 
 referring to the day's evidence ; " but I confess I 
 
 didn't like it as it came out bit by bit." 
 
 When, that night, I read a transcript of the 
 
 shorthand note of the day's proceedings, I felt that 
 
 the general effect of the evidence was very awkward, 
 and once again I thought of the awful cost of the 
 litigation. The print which I held in my hand repre- 
 sented an expense of some ten pounds, and that was 
 a mere drop in the ocean of each day's expenditure. 
 
 The eighth and the ninth days came and went, 
 and the plaintiff was still calling witnesses. By this 
 time I had seen so much of the court, and I was so 
 soaked in the case, to the exclusion of nearly all other 
 business, that at times one was conscious of a vague 
 doubt whether any existence prior to the opening of 
 Oldroyd v. fitters had not been a mere dream, and 
 whether the proceedings would not go on, and on, 
 and on, until the end of the chapter. 
 
 Mr. Justice Selby was not seen at his best when 
 trying a witness action, but whatever the nature of 
 the business before him might be, no one could watch 
 him on the bench without a feeling of reverence for 
 his great judicial gifts for his fairness and patience, 
 no less than for his commanding intellect and vast 
 learning. And oh ! what a treat it was to hear him 
 
 210
 
 A Case of Water Rights 
 
 give judgment on an adjourned summons. The in- 
 stant that the argument was concluded he would 
 clear his throat and dispose of the matter in language 
 as correct as a book and with an air of relish, that 
 showed how much he enjoyed the exercise of his own 
 powers. The junior bar worshipped him. " Selby 
 isn't an angel," said a stuffgownsman to me during 
 the progress of our trial, " and no doubt he has his 
 preferences; but whether it's Rye who's addressing 
 him, or the humblest junior at the bar, he pays just 
 the same attention." 
 
 It is possible that the judge's fear lest some 
 material piece of evidence should be lost, if he inter- 
 posed in order to cut things short, may have tended 
 to prolong the hearing of Oldroyd v. Ellers, but no 
 serious expenditure of time could be put down to this 
 cause. It was the nature of the case that made the 
 trial so prolonged. 
 
 211
 
 ;CHAPTEK VII 
 
 THINGS had gone rather better for us on the eighth 
 day, and at the consultation which followed, Ellers 
 had been more cheerful, but on the ninth day we 
 were very badly hit by Crimp, the blacksmith. 
 
 The villagers on both sides were fully alive to the 
 importance of this piece of evidence ; and when under 
 cross-examination, the witness stuck to his guns, the 
 two rival camps followed the struggle between him 
 and Orme with breathless interest. When Crimp 
 left the box with his evidence unshaken, there was 
 something like a demonstration in the ranks of 
 Monksmill. He was patted on the back and con- 
 gratulated in loud whispers ; while on the Constable 
 side of the barrier-line, several of the faces wore an 
 ugly look, and the word " liar," not unqualified by 
 adjectives, was in the air. 
 
 That evening I strolled to Charterhouse Square 
 after dining in my own rooms. I wanted to ask True- 
 penny, the miller, a few questions. 
 
 June weather had set in at last, and the moon 
 was rising in a dusty purple twilight when I passed 
 out into Holborn. Even the never-ending frontage of 
 
 212
 
 A Case of Water Rights 
 
 the Meat Market looked half-mediseval as I sauntered 
 past it. Charterhouse Square, just beyond, with its 
 trees and the glimpses of the Charterhouse which 
 it affords, had all the atmosphere of a cathedral 
 close. 
 
 Bagatelle was in full swing when I entered the 
 witnesses' room. Thrift had left his armchair and 
 was seated by the head of the board ; wholly engrossed 
 in the game and criticizing every stroke. The night 
 was so warm that the windows were all open. As the 
 miller was one of the bagatelle players, I crossed over 
 to the stove and dropped into a chair by Goosey, and 
 lit my pipe. 
 
 " I've been thinkin' over two o' them songs, sir," 
 he said confidentially, as soon as the ball of talk had 
 been set rolling. "I've been thinkin' over them 
 songs, sir ; your young gentleman's song about drink- 
 in' to females, whatsoever they was, and Mr. Thrift's 
 own song. I can't help thinkin', sir, as Mr. Murchison 
 didn't mean no harm." 
 
 The worthy man said this as if he had been trying 
 his very hardest to think evil of Tommy ; but here, I 
 am sure, he did himself an injustice. 
 
 " There was no harm in the song," I said. 
 " There's no harm in the boy either, for that matter." 
 "But then, sir," he went on, evidently much 
 relieved, " the young gentleman might suppose from 
 what Mr. Thrift said about his song, and what Mr. 
 Thrift sang himself, about the sergeant making love
 
 A Legal Practitioner 
 
 here, there, and everywheres, as drinkin' and light 
 behaviour with females wasn't no disgrace." 
 
 " Oh, dear ! Oh, dear ! That would never do ! " 
 
 "Mr. Thrift didn't mean no harm; he's a good 
 and virtuous man, sir, though sometimes he talks 
 free," protested the loyal Goosey. "He doesn't 
 always think what a weight his words has, partic'- 
 larly with young persons, through his hem' so old 
 and so wonderful nimble-witted." 
 
 "And you're afraid he may have unwittingly 
 corrupted Mr. Murchison's mind," I remarked, in 
 virtuous horror. 
 
 " I don't say that, sir ; it sounds so bad ; but I 
 was a-thinkin' as it couldn't do no harm if you was 
 to say a few words to the young gentleman about 
 the dangers of vicious courses and drinkin'. I mean 
 general-like, sir. No need to mention Mr. Thrift 
 till the last." 
 
 " Why mention him at all ? " 
 
 Goosey looked positively cunning as he unfolded the 
 plan which he had elaborated for Tommy's benefit. 
 
 Stated shortly, the details were as follows : after 
 the general remarks of a moral character, I might 
 put it, "so to speak," that it was not because Mr. 
 Thrift had led a bad life that he had attained to 
 such a great age, and was such a "merricle." On 
 the contrary so I was to put it it was because he 
 had led such a good life. Goosey was satisfied that 
 if the illustration were brought before Telemachus in 
 
 214
 
 A Case of Water Rights 
 
 this forcible manner, he would understand what a 
 good thing a good life was; and incidentally, it 
 would be made plain to him that Mr. Thrift was a 
 person of exemplary character, albeit a little disposed 
 to "talk free" sometimes. 
 
 The little man had evidently rehearsed, over and 
 over again, the scene between Tommy and his coun- 
 sellor. The mingled gravity and persuasiveness of 
 his expression were quite dramatic. It would have 
 been brutal to laugh, but the effort to keep my 
 countenance as I pictured myself taking the part of 
 Mentor, nearly killed me. 
 
 " I must turn it over in my mind," was all that 
 I could say. 
 
 The game was finished by this time, and players 
 and spectators came over to the stove; Thrift, of 
 course, taking the armchair. I soon got the infor- 
 mation which I had come for ; and presently the talk 
 began to range over the whole field of the nine days' 
 hearing. The judge had everybody's good word. The 
 miller was sure that, though he didn't say much, 
 he was taking it all in. Thrift admitted this, and 
 he also admitted that Selby was a pleas ant- spoken 
 gentleman, and took a lot of heed to what was going 
 on ; but he owned to feeling a doubt whether his lord- 
 ship fully understood that all Oldroyd's witnesses were 
 liars, and ought to have six months in gaol. That 
 they were liars, one and all, was stoutly asserted 
 by everybody. I was grieved to observe that on this 
 
 215
 
 A Legal Practitioner 
 
 point, the judicially-minded Goosey was no less posi- 
 tive than his fellows were. 
 
 As regards counsel, there was the like unanimity 
 Slocombe, Frant, and Pickersgill were poor bun- 
 glers, while Bye, Orme, and Siderfin (Siddlefin the 
 country folk called him) were masters of their busi- 
 ness. Thrift was, perhaps, a little inclined to criti- 
 cize our stuffgownsman he was a bit of a taller-face, 
 and he seemed that fond o' readin', his nose was 
 always in a book but Zachary followed this up by 
 admitting that the learned gentleman had a nice 
 easy voice to listen to ; it went through you like a file. 
 
 Upon Goosey venturing to remark that Mr. Old- 
 royd was a fine-looking gentleman, all the others, 
 except Thrift, simply stared at him with indignant 
 pity. Zachary told him, in plain Saxon, that he was 
 a fool. 
 
 " I was only sayin' what I thought, Mr. Thrift," 
 pleaded Goosey. " My thoughts is my own." 
 
 " Who's a-grudgin' you 'em ? " snapped the other. 
 " Such thoughts as yourn be ! " 
 
 "But you didn't only think it, you said it, 
 Goosey," put in Sims. 
 
 " Every man has a right to his thoughts ; it's the 
 putting 'em into words Mr. Thrift was talking of," 
 explained the miller. 
 
 "No, it warn't," croaked the old man. "What 
 business has 'un to think such torn-fool thoughts as 
 his's ? rd as lief think old Harry was good-lookin'." 
 
 216
 
 A Case of Water Rights 
 
 After this, there was some excited talk about a 
 conflict, which had taken place outside the court that 
 afternoon. Crimp had begun it by threatening to 
 break every bone in Blencowe's body ; and from what 
 fell from one and another, I gathered that there had 
 been a pretty general exchange of hot words. Ee- 
 membering how our flock had behaved when the 
 blacksmith left the witness-box, and feeling no doubt 
 that Blencowe had provoked that son of Anak, I 
 thought it well to say a few words of warning to the 
 company. They took this in excellent part; but 
 they protested so strongly that they had not been 
 the aggressors, that I promised to mention the 
 matter to Mr. Oldroyd's solicitor. Feeling ran so 
 high against Crimp, that even Goosey showed no 
 sign of disapproval when Zachary, good and virtuous 
 man though he was, coupled a bad word with the 
 blacksmith's name. 
 
 The old man went on to rate Blencowe for having 
 taken the threat so quietly. 
 
 " I wish he'd said it to me. I wish he'd said it to 
 me," quoth Zachary, nodding over his stick. 
 
 " And what would you ha' done, Mr. Thrift ? " 
 asked Goosey, open-mouthed. 
 
 " I'd ha', broke my stick over 'un," answered the 
 other, with a flourish of the weapon. 
 
 " But surely you wouldn't be fighting Crimp," 
 burst in the astonished miller ; " why, it ain't in the 
 nature o' things, Mr. Thrift." 
 
 217
 
 A Legal Practitioner 
 
 "I arn't afeard of *un," shrieked the old man, 
 with another wild flourish. 
 
 Here, to my astonishment, Goosey came forward 
 as a diplomatist. 
 
 " That ain't what Mr. Truepenny means, Mr. 
 Thrift," he said mildly. " It wouldn't be becomin' 
 in an old gentleman like you, to be fightin' and settin' 
 us all such a bad example ! " 
 
 Zaehary seemed to think that there was something 
 in this view of the case ; for he put his stick between 
 his knees and crossed his hands over it. 
 
 " But I aren't afeared of *un," he muttered. 
 
 Some of the party were preparing to go to bed 
 when I took my leave. 
 
 "We shall see you over the way to-morrow 
 morning," said Blencowe to the old man, as he 
 bade him good night. 
 
 I understood what he meant ; for I had learned 
 from Tommy that it was the custom of the party to 
 spend an hour or so before breakfast, sauntering 
 about the Meat Market. They seemed to regard this 
 amusement as one of the most delightful features of 
 their trip to London. 
 
 Zaehary gave Blencowe no answer, but I noticed 
 that his old eye sought Goosey's face. 
 
 "'Um-m. We'll be there; won't us, Goosey?" 
 he said, with a grin, when the rest of the party was 
 out of earshot. 
 
 I was surprised to come upon Ellers as I crossed 
 218
 
 A Case of Water Rights 
 
 over the roadway in front of the hotel. He was in 
 evening dress, under an overcoat, and he seemed to 
 be walking with feverish haste. 
 
 " I wanted to have a word with young Thrift and 
 Jarvis," he explained. " They're not in bed yet, I 
 suppose ! It's very good of you to be bothering your- 
 self about the case at this time of night." 
 
 " They all seemed just on the move when I left." 
 
 " Oh ! I won't disturb them. I can write a note 
 when I get back. And it isn't at all important. I 
 want to send those two home to-morrow morning. 
 The truth is," he went on, " I came out more to see 
 you. I've been to your chambers, but the door was 
 shut. Can you give me a few minutes ? " 
 
 " We may as well take a turn round the square," 
 said I. " Isn't it a pleasant place on a night like 
 this?" 
 
 " I remember coming here years ago, to see a boy 
 at the school," he said, as we sauntered under the 
 trees. "But that was in winter; the place looked 
 desolate enough then." 
 
 For a few minutes we strolled on, talking about 
 the Charterhouse and Thackeray. I could see that 
 the Hon. John had something to say, which he found 
 it difficult to bring out. 
 
 " I'm worried about this action," he said suddenly. 
 " I'm so worried about it that I hardly know what 
 to do." 
 
 "You think it's going against us? " 
 219
 
 A Legal Practitioner 
 
 " I'm afraid it is ; Rye seemed so sure this after- 
 noon that the judge was against us. But that isn't 
 all. What do you think about this business at the 
 mill ? What's your real opinion are we right, or 
 are we wrong ? That's what I came out to ask you." 
 
 " I can't make up my mind ; but even if we're 
 wrong, it's quite impossible that what's been done 
 can have had half the effect their engineers make 
 out" 
 
 " Oh yes, I feel sure there's great exaggeration ; 
 but has it had any serious effect at all ? That's the 
 point." 
 
 " I think they have proved that." 
 
 Ellers stopped dead, and stood staring at the 
 ground, with his hands behind his back. 
 
 We were nearly opposite the great mullioned 
 window of the Charterhouse, and the moon was so 
 bright that one could see the Button coat carved 
 above it. One could also see every detail of the vane 
 on the squat chapel tower, which showed through the 
 gap, just east of the window. There was hardly a 
 sound audible in the square; and I thought how 
 dead the silence must be in the courts and passages 
 of the old foundation which lay behind, and how the 
 moon must be shining in upon the great hall, where 
 the poor brothers dine in company, and upon the 
 chapel, with its old oak and Button's monument 
 "There he lies, Fundator Noster, in his ruff and 
 gown, awaiting the great Examination Day." 
 
 220
 
 A Case of Water Rights 
 
 " I hadn't the ghost of a suspicion when True- 
 penny raised the weir, to get more power, that it 
 would make any difference," broke out Ellers; "and 
 even now, I can't believe that it has made much." 
 
 "He may have been acting within your legal 
 rights, even if it has." 
 
 I said this by way of putting out a feeler; I 
 thought I could read what was in his mind. 
 
 "Yes, yes, yes, I know that; but " 
 
 Here he stopped and looked uncomfortably into 
 my face. His own was very troubled. 
 " I think I understand you," said I. 
 " I'm sure you do. But I'd better put it plainly 
 we've been too long on the land to do a thing like 
 that." 
 
 " Did you think of making an attempt to settle ? " 
 I asked, when we had resumed our saunter. 
 
 " That's the difficulty. I want to do what's fair ; 
 but how is one to deal with a man like Oldroyd ? 
 One can't trust him to meet you halfway. It's a 
 humiliating business, at best, to have to approach 
 him at all ; and to make advances and have them 
 
 flung back in your face " And the Hon. John 
 
 ended the sentence with a stamp of his foot. 
 " He may be a bit sick of the action, himself." 
 " Not he. He's a cross-grained, litigious York- 
 shireman ; obstinate as a mule. He's rolling in 
 money. The expense is a flea-bite to him, and he 
 must know the case is going in his favour." 
 
 221
 
 A Legal Practitioner 
 
 "That may, or may not be. My own opinion is 
 that Slocombe's anything but sure of winning. It's 
 wonderful how different a case looks to the party who 
 sees it from within." 
 
 " Can you suggest anything ? " 
 
 " Slocombe pledged himself this afternoon to 
 finish his case to-morrow. Suppose we wait till 
 then ! There's just a chance that something may 
 fall from the judge some hint of what he thinks the 
 points most against us are. If he does this, we 
 might make an offer on those lines; putting it, of 
 course, that we were anxious to do what his lordship 
 thought fair." 
 
 The Hon. John was pleased with this suggestion. 
 
 "Possibly," I went on, "Selby may. show that 
 he's so seriously against us that the other side 
 will stick out for all they've asked for. We must 
 remember that." 
 
 " I'll risk it," said Ellers, now much more cheer- 
 ful. " It will be a bad thing for me if I have to pay 
 all the costs. I suppose I ought to do it." 
 
 He uttered this with a sigh, as we were walking 
 along Charterhouse Street on the lookout for a cab. 
 " A bad thing for the inheritance," he added, with 
 another sigh. 
 
 " I mustn't bid you good-bye without a word of 
 thanks," he said, as we were about to part; and he 
 went on to say pretty things about my exertions 
 during the trial. 
 
 222
 
 A Case of Water Rights 
 
 Had he been winning all along the line, this would 
 have been nothing to his credit; but coming from 
 him as things stood, it did him honour. Litigation 
 is a sport at which there are few such good losers as 
 the Hon. John. 
 
 223
 
 CHAPTEK VIII 
 
 THE mystery of Thrift's remark to Goosey about the 
 Meat Market was cleared up next morning, when 
 the old man appeared in our room with a handful 
 of fine roses for Miss Ellers. Convoyed by the 
 obedient Goosey, he had toiled to Covent Garden 
 market before breakfast. Distance seemed to have 
 no terrors for Zachary, provided, as he said, that he 
 could take his own time over it. 
 
 It was pretty to see him and Doris, whose birthday 
 it was, when he presented the roses with her old 
 gardener's dooty. I found out afterwards that he 
 had kept back one of them. It was concealed in his 
 old-fashioned high hat just then, but a few minutes 
 later it was in Tommy's button-hole. 
 
 The boy was introduced to Doris that morning. 
 This was done at her desire, in order that she might 
 thank him for his kindness to the Constable folk 
 "our people," she called them. In his eyes, the 
 beautiful Miss Ellers was a goddess, and it was in 
 awe and worship that he made his obeisance to her. 
 
 "But it's we who ought to thank them," he 
 said, with another blush, " Uncle Chris and I. 
 
 224
 
 A Case of Water Rights 
 
 We've had so much fan with them." The boy 
 calls me uncle at home, and the name had slipped 
 out unawares. 
 
 On my expressing my entire concurrence in the 
 statement that we had had some fun with the villagers, 
 mademoiselle remarked demurely that she had heard 
 something about it. Tommy swore afterwards that 
 she laughed, and that she was thinking of my song. 
 
 After this I stepped over to the other side's room, 
 to make my complaint about the disturbance of the 
 day before. 
 
 "You'd better speak to Oldroyd himself," said 
 Butterfield, whom I met at the door. " It's all lies, 
 though." 
 
 "You seem to have re-established the feudal 
 system at Monksmill, Mr. Oldroyd," I said to the 
 plaintiff, after Butterfield had introduced us. 
 
 " How so ?" he asked, laughing. He was a fine 
 type 'of Yorkshireman ; a little portly, perhaps, but 
 stalwart, 'ruddy, and silver-haired. He was in mourn- 
 ing for his wife, who had died during the progress of 
 the litigation. 
 
 "Your vassals treat your quarrel as their own. 
 They've been oppressing our poor retainers." 
 
 "Were we to blame, think you ? " he asked, when 
 I had told him what had happened. No names had 
 been mentioned. 
 
 I merely looked at him, but he saw from my 
 face what I thought. 
 
 225 Q
 
 A Legal Practitioner 
 
 " I promised to make the complaint," said I. " It 
 seemed only fair to Mr. Crimp." The blacksmith 
 was standing at Oldroyd's elbow at the moment. 
 
 "Why fair to Crimp?" 
 
 "Well, Mr. Thrift was threatening last night to 
 take the law into his own hands if I didn't complain ; 
 and, like Nelson, he meant to tackle the biggest 
 ship." 
 
 Zachary was in full view, talking to Tommy; 
 Goosey, of course, was close by. 
 
 ".He's sportsman enough for anything," said 
 Oldroyd, with a laugh. " I know the old devil ! " 
 
 I came across the blacksmith again a few minutes 
 later, when I was escorting Miss Ellers to the gallery 
 stairs. He blushed and looked down, but she stopped 
 and held out her hand. 
 
 "We needn't be enemies any more, now you've 
 given your evidence need we ? I shouldn't like to 
 think I could never come to the forge again." 
 
 Crimp choked and said nothing. There were 
 tears in his eyes as he took the girl's hand. 
 
 The trial was resumed at half-past ten. The 
 plaintiffs evidence was to be completed that day, but 
 the case might drag on for many, many days after 
 that. The proceedings opened stormily: there was 
 such a severe tussle between Orme and the first 
 witness, that before long, the rival hosts in the back 
 rows were seething with excitement. 
 
 I left court in the middle of the cross-examination. 
 226
 
 A Case of Water Rights 
 
 I had a call of no great importance to make in the 
 Temple, and I was not sorry to escape into the open 
 air for a few minutes. 
 
 I had strolled down the staircase leading to the 
 vaulted corridor below, and had just turned in the 
 direction of the hall, when I found that unwittingly, 
 I had come upon a boy and girl love-making. He 
 was holding both her hands, and making some sort 
 of appeal to her. She was listening with her face 
 averted, and neither of them saw me. I paused 
 involuntarily at a sight so strange in that place; 
 and though it was only for a flash, the girl looked 
 up, and I recognized her. It was Doris Ellers. 
 
 She also recognized me; and seeing that I was 
 passing on, she called me by my name. I stood 
 much embarrassed; for her cheeks were dyed with 
 blushes and tears were trembling in her eyes. The 
 boy was a fine specimen of humanity ; well grown, 
 and with the bearing of a gentleman. I could 
 pardon the awful wrath with which he was glaring 
 at poor me. 
 
 " I'm very sorry," I said ; and then we all three 
 stood tongue-tied. 
 
 "This is Mr. Charles Oldroyd," said the girl at 
 last, in a sort of desperation. 
 
 "Mr. Charles Oldroyd!" I echoed, too much 
 amazed to know what I was saying. And then a full 
 understanding of the situation burst upon me. I knew 
 by this time that I had seen the same pair three days 
 
 227
 
 A Legal Practitioner 
 
 before, and I understood what had been happening. 
 While the strife between the two fathers had been 
 raging in the court above, these young people had 
 been sauntering among the pillars; shepherd and 
 shepherdess in an Arcadia all their own. And at 
 that very moment, not many feet overhead, the con- 
 flict was still raging. Ellers was sitting there ; his 
 mind full of doubt as to the justice of his cause, and 
 full of anxiety to do what was right, if only he could 
 find a way; and behind him, there were the two 
 companies of villagers simmering with wrath and 
 jealousy, while Orme blustered and bellowed at the 
 Monksmill witness in the box. What Oldroyd's 
 feelings were as he sat in his place, a yard or so 
 from Ellers, I did not know; but it was only 
 reasonable to suppose that they were not very 
 amicable. 
 
 " I suppose you must tell my father," faltered the 
 girl. 
 
 " I don't know what my duty is, and I'm sure 
 I shall not have to consider. You will tell him 
 yourself, Miss Ellers." 
 
 " Oh, please don't cry ! " I went on, for I saw that 
 her tears were falling. " I'm sure everything will 
 come right. Don't you know that your father wants 
 to bring that miserable business upstairs, to an end." 
 I forgot when I said this that the lover belonged to 
 the other side. 
 
 "We haven't talked about it for days and days 
 228
 
 A Case of Water Rights 
 
 we agreed that we wouldn't but I've seen how unhappy 
 he is." 
 
 " My father's sick of it, too," said young Oldroyd, 
 who had cooled down by now, and who seemed to 
 understand that I meant well. 
 
 " I heard father tell Mr. Trout this morning 
 that he was sure the judge was against us," said 
 the girl. 
 
 " Slocombe told my father that the judge was 
 against us; and he didn't at all like the look of 
 things," said the boy. 
 
 This was enough for me. " Miss Ellers," I said, 
 " if you'll come upstairs to our room I'll bring your 
 father to you, and you must tell him. On my honour, 
 I don't think you ought to lose a minuta" 
 
 She dried her eyes and went up with me. 
 
 " Can you tell father tell him that you came upon 
 us, and that you've brought me here ? It will make 
 it so much easier for both of us," she pleaded. 
 
 " It may take a little time," said I; "so don't be 
 uneasy." 
 
 There was no difficulty in getting Ellers out of 
 court and into one of the recesses of the corridor ; 
 but it was not so easy to broach the matter to him. 
 I did it, however, and he received it like a man in 
 a dream. 
 
 " Think it over, Mr. Ellers, for a minute or two 
 before you say anything," was my winding-up ; " and 
 remember the talk we had last night ! And remember 
 
 229
 
 A Legal Practitioner 
 
 that you've never heard any harm of the boy, and 
 perhaps his father isn't quite what you think he is ! " 
 
 It was rather more than two minutes before Ellers 
 epoke. 
 
 " Doris will never change her mind," he muttered 
 absently. 
 
 "You won't forget the inheritance," I hinted. 
 "It will round off the inheritance." 
 
 " No, no ! I shan't forget the inheritance our 
 old dower house." 
 
 He was still speaking like one half awake. 
 
 " Your daughter is in the room here," I said, after 
 another silence. " She is waiting for you. Have you 
 made up your mind ? " 
 
 " Yes ! Oh yes ! I'll go to her," he answered, 
 as he started off. "Thank you," he said, coming 
 back and offering his hand. 
 
 " Shall I see Mr. Oldroyd?" 
 
 I hesitated to make the suggestion, but I did not 
 see how else matters were to be arranged. 
 
 " I shall be grateful if you will." 
 
 " And I may tell him that you will leave the matter 
 to your daughter, as you have perfect confidence in 
 her?" 
 
 " Yes. That is so.' 
 
 I was debating as to how I could get hold of 
 Oldroyd, when luck stepped in to aid me : I saw him 
 coming out of the court. I made a dash and bore 
 him off into the recess. 
 
 230
 
 A Case of Water Rights 
 
 He heard me out, with his hands in his pockets 
 and his eyes fixed upon the floor. In conclusion, I 
 exhorted him to think for two minutes before he 
 spoke. 
 
 " This must be a bitter pill for Ellers," he said, 
 looking up. 
 
 " Not so bitter as you might suppose. He thinks 
 well of your son." 
 
 The man's eyes flashed. " He is a fine lad ; isn't 
 he?" 
 
 " I was inclined to wish that he wasn't quite so 
 fine when I first saw him; I was almost afraid he 
 meant to tear me limb from limb," said I. " He 
 seemed to resent my dropping down upon them from 
 the clouds." 
 
 Oldroyd burst out laughing. " Well, you were a 
 bit of a spoil-sport." 
 
 "And you'll leave matters to your son?" I 
 asked. 
 
 " It's more his concern than mine. I didn't con- 
 sult my father when I took my poor wife," he answered, 
 looking down at his black clothes. " We choose for 
 ourselves in Yorkshire. And will that boy have Con- 
 stable Abbey some day ? " he asked, with a sort of 
 wonder. 
 
 "In a sense he will, I suppose. And, no doubt, 
 your grandson will inherit it." 
 
 We had moved out of the recess by this time, and 
 I was watching the room door. Doris came out and 
 
 231
 
 A Legal Practitioner 
 
 disappeared through the entrance to the staircase up 
 which I had brought her. 
 
 Oldroyd followed her with his eyes. " She's a 
 bonny lass," he muttered, "and better than she's 
 bonny." 
 
 " Amen ! " said I, remembering the scene with 
 Crimp. 
 
 " You can't live near Constable and not know 
 that," he added. 
 
 " She's gone to fetch your son. Come in to Ellers 
 and have it over." 
 
 On our way to the room we ran 'across Trout and 
 Butterfield, who had come out of court to examine 
 some documents. They were told of what had 
 happened, and bidden to instruct counsel that the 
 case had been settled. I need not dwell on their 
 amazement. 
 
 The meeting between plaintiff and defendant was 
 a very stiff one on both sides, but Oldroyd went 
 straight to the point. 
 
 "You can pull down the west wall at Monksmill, 
 Mr. Ellers," said he, as soon as the bows had been 
 exchanged. "The young folks can live there. I 
 shall go back to fold place. I'm best in Yorkshire." 
 He was deeply moved, for all his brusqueness, and 
 there was a touch of the West Biding in his speech. 
 
 Ellers flushed up to the roots of his hair. " It 
 will be very hard on the young people if we can't be 
 neighbourly," he said. " And if we can't, I'm sure 
 
 232
 
 A Case of Water Rights 
 
 the fault will be on my side. I'm sorry about the 
 mill. If I'd known all I've learnt during the last few 
 days, you wouldn't have had to bring me here. I'm 
 very sorry." 
 
 They shook hands after that shamefacedly on 
 both sides. 
 
 "Hemmingway and Jobson can settle the water 
 difficulty in an afternoon," said I. 
 
 Just then the door opened and the lovers came in. 
 I could not make my escape, for the plaintiff advanced 
 to meet Doris, and the two blocked the door. He 
 shook his fist at his son as the boy crossed him on 
 his way to Ellers. 
 
 There had been a suspicion of Yorkshire roughness 
 in Oldroyd's manner when he spoke to the father, but 
 there was nothing but Yorkshire tenderness in his 
 greeting to the girl. 
 
 " God bless thee, my lass ! " he said, as he took 
 her hands and bent down to kiss her; "we'll mak' 
 thee happy, niver fear ! " 
 
 I was able to get away after this. The moment 
 that I stepped into the corridor I saw that the trial 
 was over and that everything was known. Constable- 
 Abbotts and Monksmill were pouring out of the 
 court ; a clattering, hand-shaking little mob, heading 
 straight for the refreshment bar. There was peace 
 on the countryside once more. 
 
 A few minutes later Oldroyd and Ellers and the 
 young people had emerged from the room, and were 
 
 233
 
 A Legal Practitioner 
 
 making their way towards Carey Street. Doris Lad 
 the old man's roses in her hand. Some one must 
 have been keeping watoh on behalf of the villagers, 
 for a clumping and clattering of country shoe-leather 
 sounded from the direction of the refreshment bar ; 
 and the next moment Constable-Abbotts and Monks- 
 mill appeared in view, all excitement to give the 
 party a send-off. The good folk ducked and grinned, 
 and shot out brief words of congratulation as they 
 brushed past the four, and hurried to range themselves 
 on each side of the entrance. 
 
 Policemen and orderlies were holding the doors 
 wide open, and the objects of the demonstration were 
 close upon the double line, when three figures, press- 
 ing forward in desperate haste, came in sight Thrift, 
 Goosey, and Crimp. Zachary was straining every 
 nerve to be in time, but the old legs were inexorable. 
 He was working his stick like one demented as he 
 struggled forward upon the blacksmith's arm. The 
 agony on all three countenances was unspeakable. 
 Suddenly Crimp gave a desperate look ahead of him 
 all would be over before they could reach their 
 goal. The giant rose to the occasion, and, pausing 
 for an instant, he gathered Thrift under his arm like 
 a bundle, and fairly ran with him ; Goosey lumbering 
 along in the rear. 
 
 They were in plenty of time, however, for both 
 teams of counsel, Orme only excepted, had come 
 forward to offer their congratulations. Beaming and 
 
 234
 
 A Case of Water Rights 
 
 jocund were they, every one, and joyousest of all the 
 five was our stuff-gownsman, "Siddlefin" of the 
 lantern jaws. I was glad that Orme was absent. 
 
 There was a breathless silence in the two ranks 
 as boy and girl passed between, with plaintiff and 
 defendant in their wake ; but no sooner had the party 
 crossed the threshold than the lines broke up, and 
 Constable-Abbotts and Monksmill were pouring for- 
 ward, cheering and waving their hats. Two hansoms 
 were in waiting ; and I caught my last glimpse of the 
 young people as they got into one of them. 
 
 It was a mad scene in Carey Street as the cabs 
 drove off. The country folk were surging all about, 
 and in the thick of them stood Crimp ; the gigantic 
 Crimp, swaying and roaring, a very bull of Bashan ! 
 with Zachary held up like an old doll in his arms. 
 Goosey was hanging on to the giant's skirts j seeing 
 nothing, but waving his billycock, and cheering with 
 all his might. 
 
 235
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 IT was on a Saturday that Oldroyd v. Ellers came to 
 such an unexpected end. My work at Gray's Inn had 
 fallen so seriously into arrear that I gave the after- 
 noon to it, and I kept Tommy to help me. He, to 
 his vast regret, had not been at the Courts when the 
 end came. 
 
 Somewhere between five and six o'clock, he ran 
 out into Holborn to register a letter; and while I 
 was sitting alone there came a faint rap at the 
 office door. Zachary Thrift was the visitor. I was 
 amazed to see him, for I knew that the witnesses 
 had been despatched home hours before. 
 
 My first sensation was one of mere surprise, but 
 when I looked at him I was shocked. His old face 
 was drawn and haggard, and he seemed in the last 
 stage of exhaustion and decrepitude. So feeble was 
 he that he swayed and staggered as he tried to 
 mount the one stair which leads up to my room. 
 When I had helped him over it, he sank into a 
 chair, and he lay back, so shrivelled and inert, that 
 he looked like a mere bundle of clothes. 
 
 " Whatever is the matter ? " I asked, as soon as 
 he had recovered himself a little. 
 
 236^
 
 A Case of Water Rights 
 
 " I've been left behind." 
 
 " How did you find me out ? " 
 
 "When I went back to the hotel, they was all 
 gone. The tall gentleman Mr. Kemp he said as 
 he could do nothing for me; I must come on to 
 you. He was that short, he was," said Zachary, 
 miserably. 
 
 I guessed from his manner that the manager had 
 been very rough with him. 
 
 " Well, you're all right now," I said encourag- 
 ingly. " We'll see after you." 
 
 " I thought belike, Master Tommy was here," said 
 the old man, with a forlorn glance round the room. 
 " No, no ; he's out after the wummin," he added, with 
 a sourness, that had a keen sense of disappointment 
 behind it. " That's where he is." 
 
 " I thought belike, he was here," he repeated to 
 himself. "I shan't never see 'un again. Just as 
 well, maybe ! I'm nowt in Lunnon, now the trial's 
 over. They was pleasant enough afore, at the hotel 
 Mr. Kemp and all on 'em all on 'em." 
 
 " And what's become of Mr. Goosey ? " 
 
 The old man compressed his lips and was silent. 
 " I did think as Goosey would ha' seen me through," 
 he muttered. 
 
 By this time he had recovered enough, to sit up 
 in his usual attitude, but the thought of Goosey's 
 desertion seemed to open his wounds afresh. His 
 muttered sentence was addressed to his stick. A 
 
 237
 
 A Legal Practitioner 
 
 desolate and deplorable old figure he looked, as he 
 wagged his head over his crossed hands. 
 
 " What UNKIE ! " 
 
 There was no mistaking the welcome in Tommy's 
 voice. The poor old eyes brightened, and for a 
 moment, something like a grin flickered on Zachary's 
 lips. 
 
 " Mr. Thrift has been left behind," I said. 
 
 " Well, that's good for us, as we're seeing him 
 again. But how did it happen, uncle ? " 
 
 Thrift was unwilling to answer; but he seemed 
 to feel that an explanation of his plight and con- 
 dition was inevitable. 
 
 " I took a drop to drink, and I fell asleep," he 
 said, very humbly. " We all had a drop to drink, 
 and I lost 'em. It was Goosey as I saw last, if I 
 don't mistake," he went on. 
 
 " And where did you fall asleep ? " 
 
 " Down by the river, where you took us, Master 
 Tommy." 
 
 "The Embankment gardens. That was one of 
 our smoking-places ; Lincoln's Inn Fields was the 
 other," explained Tommy, for my benefit. 
 
 " Well, you're all right, now you've had a nap," he 
 said to the old man. 
 
 "No, no! I'm both sick and sorry, Master 
 Tommy." 
 
 " Not sick," said the boy, cheerfully. 
 
 Zachary pondered for a moment. " Not now, " he 
 238
 
 A Case of Water Rights 
 
 answered grimly, with an uncomfortable smacking of 
 his lips. 
 
 This was half humorous ; and my laughter and 
 Tommy's roars of appreciation did him good. 
 
 " And what did you do when you woke up ? " was 
 the next question. 
 
 " I went to the hotel, and they was all gone ; 
 they'd all forgot me Goosey and all." 
 
 "And Kemp was none too sympathetic," said I. 
 "He had the sense to send Mr. Thrift on here, but 
 he might have sent him in a cab and somebody 
 with him." 
 
 " I'll call on Monday and have a word with him," 
 said Tommy. 
 
 But Zachary in his humiliation would not hear 
 of that. 
 
 "No, no, Master Tommy; he didn't know no 
 better. I don't bear no malice. Love your enemies : 
 be kind to them as dispitefully uses you ! " 
 
 "Your friends didn't forget you," said I. " They 
 went off in two parties, and the second lot must have 
 thought you had gone with the first. By-the-by, 
 where's your luggage ? " 
 
 " That's gone. Me and Goosey had one box 
 atween us." 
 
 " Well, you know he could have meant nothing 
 but kindness." 
 
 "Left-handed kindness, a-leavin' me in Lunnon 
 without a mossel o' clo'es and no money," grunted 
 
 239
 
 A Legal Practitioner 
 
 Zachary, in quite his old manner. The rest had 
 done much for him, and Tommy's presence and 
 welcome had done more. 
 
 " No money ! " I exclaimed. 
 
 " I had my pus stole. I felt for 'un the moment 
 I woke up, and he was gone." 
 
 Zachary was once more dreadfully ashamed of 
 himself. 
 
 " Was there much in it ? " 
 
 " Seven and ninepence seven and ninepence was 
 in 'un after breakfast this mornin','' he groaned. 
 
 " But that was before before the trial was over," 
 said Tommy. 
 
 The old man seemed to find consolation in this 
 reminder, as he thought it over with half-shut eyes. 
 
 " It's nothing but Providence as they didn't take 
 my stick," he went on. " I must ha' kept a good 
 tight hold o' he." He said this with a touch of pride 
 as he patted the object in question. 
 
 The thought of a London pickpocket burdening 
 himself with such a piece of timber was too much for 
 Tommy. He burst out laughing. 
 
 Zachary received this as a tribute to his clever- 
 ness. 
 
 " I always do keep a good tight hold o' he, Master 
 Tommy." And again he patted the stick. 
 
 " What you want is a cup of tea," said the boy, 
 struck by a sudden thought. " You shall have it in 
 
 half a jiff." 
 
 240
 
 A Case of Water Rights 
 
 As he moved about getting the tea-things, and 
 operating upon them with an office duster, Zachary 
 followed him with worshipping eyes. 
 
 "It's the wummin as learnt him his ways," he 
 muttered, when Tommy was outside setting the 
 kettle on to boil; "but they didn't learn him his 
 lovin' -kindness. That's his nature." 
 
 " He's gone out," he ejaculated, when the outer 
 door slammed. 
 
 "He's getting the milk." 
 
 Zachary drew in his breath with a hissing sound. 
 " Gettin' the milk ! " he repeated, in a sort of rapture. 
 "Takin' all this trouble along of I! Bless hia 
 heart ! " 
 
 " And him a lawyer ! " he went on, staring hard 
 at the books and papers littered about. " All of them 
 inside of his head, and him so cunnin' about turnips 
 turnips and taters ! It's won'erful won'erful ! 
 And him a-runnin' out to get me milk ! " 
 
 Zachary had a brush-up, and then he did full 
 justice to the tea and to the biscuits which accom- 
 panied it. He took no interest in the kind with 
 which I mortify the flesh at four o'clock; but a 
 sweet variety, which Tommy hunted out of Peacock's 
 private drawer, was very much to his taste. 
 
 "And what are you going to tell them at Con- 
 stable ? " asked Tommy. 
 
 Zachary was quite himself again by this time. 
 "I've been a-thinkin' o' that, Master Tommy," he 
 
 241 R
 
 A Legal Practitioner 
 
 Baid, with a wave of the cigar which he had accepted 
 out of my box "I've been a-thinkin' of that." 
 
 "And what's the tale to be ? " 
 
 The old man leered, and seemed to hug himself 
 with delight. 
 
 " I shall tell 'un as you took me to Westminster 
 Abbey, Master Tommy. That's what I shall tell 'un. 
 Me and Goosey was there last Sunday." 
 
 "And I shall tell 'un as how I had tea here," he 
 went on; grinning and chuckling at his own in- 
 genuity. " They can't gainsay that. I shall tell 'un 
 about your a-fetchin' the milk, and what the biscuits 
 was like. That'll carry all off." 
 
 In the midst of our laughter, and the shrill 
 triumphant chuckles of the old man, there came a 
 knock at the door. Tommy disappeared to answer 
 it. I caught a few hurried words outside; then 
 there was a shuffling of heavy feet over the oilcloth, 
 and the next moment, Goosey was standing in the 
 doorway, devouring Thrift with his eyes a panting, 
 dilapidated Goosey, whose hat was dinted in, and 
 whose face was ghastly pale, with beads of perspira- 
 tion standing upon it. 
 
 " Oh, Mr. Thrift ! " he cried, almost beside him- 
 self with joy. 
 
 Tommy put him into a chair, and, after a choke or 
 two, the good soul turned his face to the wall and wept. 
 
 Zachary's jaw had dropped at the sight of Goosey. 
 What about Westminster Abbey now? His lips 
 
 242
 
 A Case of Water Rights 
 
 chumped the cigar as he sat looking at his friend 
 and thinking the matter over. 
 
 "Where ha' you a-come from, Goosey?" he 
 croaked out a little uneasily, as soon as the other 
 had wiped his eyes and was facing us once again. 
 
 "I come straight from the hotel, Mr. Thrift: I 
 come as quick as ever I could," was the meek answer. 
 
 " Who was it you see there ? " 
 
 " The young lady in the bar, Mr. Thrift." 
 
 " Did you see Mr. Kemp ? Yes, or no, sir ! No 
 lies, Goosey ! " 
 
 Zachary's tone was losing its uneasiness, and was 
 becoming more dictatorial and severe every moment ; 
 and in it there was a suggestion of Orme's method 
 of dealing with a recalcitrant witness. 
 
 "I didn't see no one but the young lady. Why 
 should I want to tell you lies, Mr. Thrift ? " 
 
 " Did she tell you as I'd been there ? Speak out, 
 Goosey ! " 
 
 " That was how I knew as you was stopped behind, 
 and was a-huntin' about for me. The young lady 
 said you was upset. I run nearly all the way, Mr. 
 Thrift ; I did indeed ! It wasn't because I knew as 
 you was angered with me ; I was afeared as you was 
 goin' to have a stroke. I'm always expectin' it, but 
 it 'ud break my heart if I was to give it you a day 
 afore God Almighty." 
 
 Poor Goosey had to pause for a moment before he 
 could go on. 
 
 243
 
 A Legal Practitioner 
 
 " And then, when I come on here, hardly expectin 1 
 to see you alive, there you was a-sittin* that cheerful- 
 like and smoking a cigyar. You've a wonderful strong 
 head, Mr. Thrift." 
 
 Zachary had bunched up his lips at the mention 
 of a stroke. Now, he blew out a long, slow, con- 
 temptuous stream of tobacco. 
 
 "It's gettin' drunk as brings on strokes, Goosey," 
 he said, with intense meaning. 
 
 Goosey hung his head. " It's the first time in 
 my life, Mr. Thrift," he murmured imploringly. 
 
 " You tell us all about it, Goosey." Thrift croaked 
 this out as if he were calling on the other to make 
 public his transgressions as a penance or act of 
 expiation. " What did you do after me and you had 
 had our dinner with Crimp and the others? Don't 
 you try to keep nothing back, Goosey ! " 
 
 " It was after we'd had our dinner, Mr. Thrift, as 
 you said we'd slip off by ourselves. That's true, ain't 
 it ? And when we was a-crossin' the road, you said 
 ' Goosey, we'll have a merry-go-down to finish off 
 with.' You was in wonderful spirits, Mr. Thrift ; you 
 remember how you was a-singin' ! " 
 
 "I was a-singin' Master Tommy's song," said 
 Thrift, with a cock of his eye, to make us understand 
 that this was a mere shot. 
 
 "Well, Mr. Thrift, I thowt it was 'The Miller o' 
 the Dee.' I seem to hear you now, a-singin' as you 
 didn't care for nobody. But I ain't a-goin' to set 
 
 244
 
 A Case of Water Rights 
 
 up my memory afore yourn. And I thowt you was 
 a-singin' it again outside the public-house, after we'd 
 had the drop o' gin. And then I forgot all about you, 
 Mr. Thrift. I don't even remember bein' with you, 
 after you was a-singin' outside the Seven Stars. I 
 was that overcome with liquor, I didn't notice 
 nothing, and I didn't think of nothing, except as I 
 wanted to sit down somewheres me as promised 
 your missis to look after you." 
 
 Goosey fairly broke down again when he recalled 
 this broken promise. 
 
 "That was afore two o'clock, Goosey," said 
 Zachary, who had followed with intense interest his 
 friend's recital of their joint proceedings. 
 
 1< I know it was, Mr. Thrift, but when we got into 
 the big place with the railings round it, I must ha' 
 fell asleep. It wasn't fair to go away and leave me 
 it wasn't kind, Mr. Thrift." 
 
 " Was I a-goin' to stay along of a man as was 
 snorin' back on a seat, with his hat drove in ? " said 
 Thrift, indignantly. " It warn't respectable, Goosey." 
 
 Goosey looked at his hat, and blushed as he 
 knocked it out. 
 
 "You might ha' woke me, Mr. Thrift," he said 
 mildly. 
 
 "And there you was, a-snorin* on a seat, hower 
 after hower, while I was in Westminster Abbey along 
 o' Master Tommy." 
 
 Zachary spoke as if the contrast was too degrading 
 245
 
 A Legal Practitioner 
 
 for contemplation. Goosey was keenly alive to the 
 ignominy of his own side of it. 
 
 " And while you was a-sleepin' like a hog, I'll be 
 bound you had your pus stole," was the patriarch's 
 next remark, with another cock of his eye towards 
 Tommy and me. 
 
 Goosey made a wild dive into his pocket. " No, 
 Mr. Thrift, my pus is all right," he said thankfully. 
 " It's here and lawk-a-mercy, I've got yourn too ! " 
 
 He had fished out two purses and was gazing 
 upon them spellbound. 
 
 Zachary's astonishment at the sight of his lost 
 treasure was too great to be concealed. Goosey, 
 however, saw nothing of this, and the next moment 
 Thrift was himself again. 
 
 " And you not to remember me a-handin' it over 
 to you in the Seven Stars. You must ha 1 been dead 
 drunk, Goosey ! " 
 
 "He must have a cup of tea," cried Tommy. 
 " There's plenty of milk left." 
 
 Goosey accepted the offer with thankfulness. 
 Unlike Zachary, he seemed to prefer the plainer 
 biscuits. 
 
 " And what am I a-goin' to say when I get home ? " 
 he moaned, when the meal was over and he had lit 
 his pipe. 
 
 Thrift looked at him long and musingly. " You've 
 made a beast o* yourself this afternoon, Goosey," he 
 said, at length, "but the circumstances was some 
 
 246
 
 A Case of Water Rights 
 
 excuse. It was Miss Doris's health as you was 
 a-drinkin'. I'll stand by you, Goosey, this once. 
 I'll tell 'un as you was at Westminster Abbey, along 
 o' me and Master Tommy." 
 
 Goosey in his gratitude for this magnanimity 
 nearly broke down once more. 
 
 "I'll never do it again, Mr. Thrift, as long as I 
 live," he said, with tears in his eyes. " It's dreadful 
 to think as it ain't true, but I couldn't never face 
 your missis if she was to know." 
 
 " You mustn't rub this in any more, Mr. Thrift," 
 I said, when Goosey had retired to perform his ablu- 
 tions. " I have a very great respect for your friend." 
 
 " I aren't a-goin' to ; I might burn my fingers if 
 I warn't careful," he answered, chuckling and rocking 
 himself to and fro over his stick at the thought of his 
 successful villainy. "I shan't talk nowt about 'un, 
 and I shan't let Goosey talk nowt, neither." 
 
 "I've been thinkin' about that Mr. Kemp," he 
 broke out viciously, after a spell of rumination. " I've 
 two minds to go back and break my stick over 'un." 
 
 "No, no!" I answered; "it isn't worth while 
 losing your train on his account." 
 
 " Good-bye," I said on the landing, when the pair 
 were about to start under Tommy's guidance. " No 
 more healths to Miss Doris at Waterloo ! " 
 
 Poor Goosey protested that he should never drink 
 a health again. 
 
 "No, no; Mr. Goosey will never do it again," 
 247
 
 A Legal Practitioner 
 
 said Tommy ; but it was Thrift whom he patted on 
 the shoulder. "It won't happen again, will it, 
 uncle ? " he asked meaningly. 
 
 Thrift leered. " Not till the weddin' feast, Master 
 
 Tommy ; and then " Here he crossed his hands 
 
 over his stick and broke out into a quaver 
 
 " ' Let the to-ast pa-a-a-s 1 
 Drink to the la-a-a-s I 
 I'll warrant she'll prove an excuse for the gla-a-a-s I ' " 
 
 " Oh no ! I won't say that," said the repentant 
 Goosey ; " but it's a pretty song, Mr. Thrift." 
 
 248
 
 THE CALAMITY OF CHARLES 
 HARTRIGG 
 
 CHAPTEE I 
 
 CHARLES HABTEIGG'S father and I had been close 
 friends as schoolfellows. But when he went to 
 Oxford, and I entered into training as a solicitor, our 
 ways parted and the cleavage was never made good. 
 After a year or two of indecision, he followed up his 
 degree by reading for the bar, but by that time I 
 was a qualified solicitor, and was earning my bread 
 as a conveyancing clerk in a country office. Later 
 on, when I had purchased my half-share of poor 
 old Puseley's decaying business in Gray's Inn, and 
 had come back to London, I found John Hartrigg's 
 name in the counsel part of the law list, but I 
 never met him ; and before I had got firm in the 
 saddle of my new venture, and was in a position 
 to be of some use to a member of the bar, I learnt 
 from some source or another that my schoolfellow 
 had married and had settled down, to live in the 
 country on the moderate competence that had always 
 
 249
 
 A Legal Practitioner 
 
 been bis own. Puseley had been so long dead that I 
 had almost forgotten his manifold deficiencies, when 
 one morning John Hartrigg was shown into my room, 
 and we stood face to face after an interval of nearly 
 thirty years. 
 
 We greeted one another in such wise as was 
 natural under the circumstances. We shook hands, 
 and each having seated himself, took stock of the 
 other's past as recorded in his face. 
 
 " Very grey, very tired almost blighted, in fact," 
 was my mental summary of John Hartrigg' s aspect, 
 as I made a conventional remark upon the flight of 
 time. 
 
 " I want you to make my will," he said. 
 
 I took a sheet of draft paper out of the drawer 
 at my side, and sat pen in hand awaiting his 
 instructions. 
 
 He paused for a moment as if about to begin ; 
 and then, perhaps, it struck him that some explana- 
 tion was due to me. 
 
 " I received my death sentence a fortnight ago. 
 All the doctors there were three of them said I 
 could not live another year. Heart trouble, they call 
 it. I thought I couldn't do better than come to you. 
 I had heard of your progress from time to time ; and, 
 to tell the truth, as soon as I found that the end 
 was in sight, my thoughts went back a good deal to 
 those early days." 
 
 He said this with a touch of feeling, but before I 
 250
 
 The Calamity of Charles Hartrigg 
 
 could say anything, he went on in the calm, almost 
 monotonous voice in which he had opened. 
 
 " It sounds very terrible, and I'm sorry to have 
 to trouble you with it, but, so far as I'm concerned, 
 there's no ground for unhappiness. I wouldn't have 
 it otherwise if I could." 
 
 As I struggled to collect my thoughts, I could 
 hear the clock ticking on the mantelpiece, and the 
 room with all its contents was present to my eye, 
 but my brain was groping among the shadows of 
 the past ; for, interposed between my physical vision 
 and the objects before it, and seeming to pervade 
 the whole room, was a young face brimming over 
 with life and arch with mischief, under the peak of 
 a blue cricket-cap. There it floated, clear and dis- 
 tinct as when it had bitten itself into my memory 
 on some forgotten occasion long years before; and 
 with a feeling not far removed from tears, I was 
 conscious that the happy imp and the grey, tired 
 man seated opposite me were one and the same 
 person. 
 
 "I am grieved to distress you so ; and really 
 there's nothing to grieve about." The level voice 
 brought me back to myself, and I looked at him 
 wonderingly. 
 
 " The truth is, my wife died last year." 
 
 I think he saw that I understood him ; but after 
 a moment's silence he spoke again. 
 
 " I dare say you remember the old epitaph ; 
 251
 
 A Legal Practitioner 
 
 it's been running in my head night and day ever 
 since 
 
 " ' She first deceased : he for a little tried 
 To live without her ; liked it not and died.' " 
 
 " Liked it not," he repeated, with a faint accent of 
 admiration. "There's such a fine restraint about 
 that way of putting it ! " There was no air of con- 
 fession in his manner ; nothing to suggest that the 
 subject referred to lay near his heart, or was anything 
 but dry commonplace fact. 
 
 " Let's get done with the will-making," said I. 
 
 " I've got a great favour to ask you first ; I want 
 you to act as guardian to my son. Please hear me 
 out before you say no." 
 
 I made some movement of acquiescence, and he 
 went on to explain that the boy was eighteen and was 
 already entered at one of the colleges at Oxford, whither 
 he would proceed in a month or so. Under the cir- 
 cumstances, the guardianship could not prove onerous, 
 and in all probability my duties would amount to 
 little or nothing more than furnishing the ward with 
 an allowance, and the giving him advice as to his 
 future career. 
 
 " Charlie is to have everything on his coming of 
 age, and the whole trust will end then. I want you 
 to be my sole trustee and executor, as well as his 
 guardian. Now you have all the facts." 
 
 "There's one word more," he continued. "I 
 don't want to press you unduly ; but in fairness to 
 
 252
 
 The Calamity of Charles Hartrigg 
 
 myself, I must say that if you refuse, there is no one 
 else to whom I can confide the trust with a clear 
 mind. I have had a fortnight to think the matter 
 over, and I've thought of nothing else ; and that is 
 the conclusion I have come to. I may not have 
 
 time " 
 
 He stopped abruptly, but it was not difficult to 
 follow the broken sentence to its end. If I refused, 
 he might not have time to find anybody else. I could 
 not but respect his unwillingness to say a word more 
 than was necessary to justify his coming to me on 
 such an errand after so many years. 
 
 "I am willing to act," I said, taking up my pen. 
 " What are your wishes in the event of your son not 
 attaining twenty-one ? " 
 
 The gift over proved to be such a simple one that 
 I was able to draw the will then and there. In the 
 course of a few minutes I handed it to him for 
 perusal. 
 
 " You are determined to give me no co-trustee ? " 
 I said, when he handed it back, after having in- 
 sisted upon the introduction of a full remuneration 
 clause. 
 
 " Quite. It's not necessary ; the risk of your 
 dying within the next three years is too small to 
 be worth considering." 
 
 " It's a bad plan to give any man absolute control 
 over another's estate." 
 
 " I'm quite easy on that score," he answered, with 
 253
 
 A Legal Practitioner 
 
 the ghost of a smile ; " and I've better reasons than 
 you know of. I've heard a good deal of you from 
 time to time. And what would you think of me if I 
 asked a layman to act with you ? " 
 
 "It's so usual, I don't suppose I should have 
 given it a thought." 
 
 " But it can't be right to ask any one to accept 
 responsibility under such conditions. It's responsi- 
 bility without control. How can a layman exercise 
 supervision if his co-trustee is a solicitor ? " 
 
 I made no answer. I was struck by his practical 
 common sense and by the right feeling behind it, and 
 I was thinking that perhaps I was the poorer for 
 having lost sight of John Hartrigg. The tired wreck, 
 who had come back to me after so many years, had 
 not always moved among his fellows as a shadow 
 among shadows. 
 
 " What is your son like ? " I asked. 
 "I think he is everything that a boy should be," 
 he answered after a pause ; " I can see no fault in 
 him, unless it be a certain aloofness as regards other 
 boys." 
 
 I engrossed the will with my own hand, and it was 
 duly executed and attested. 
 
 " Perhaps one of these gentlemen will be so good 
 as to tell my attendant that I shall be glad of 
 his arm," said the testator, as soon as the two 
 clerks had signed their names. "He is in the cab 
 outside."
 
 The Calamity of Charles Hartrigg 
 
 " No, no, I won't trouble you," he said, anticipat- 
 ing the offer that was on my lips. " Please let me 
 go as I came, but don't fancy I'm not grateful." 
 
 We shook hands without another word, and he 
 passed slowly out through the open door, and shut it 
 behind him. A fortnight later I received a letter 
 telling me that he was dead. 
 
 255
 
 CHAPTEK II 
 
 IT was not feasible for me to journey to Denbighshire 
 to arrange for the funeral and put matters in train 
 for proving the will. Old Peacock went as my 
 substitute. He departed clad in shining sables, and 
 showing in every curve of his ample person, the under- 
 takerish air of melancholy, which it is his custom to 
 assume on such occasions. Five or six days later he 
 returned to Gray's Inn, clothed in his usual habili- 
 ments and restored to his wonted cheerfulness. Young 
 Mr. Hartrigg was good looking, but somewhat stand- 
 offish, and he proposed to come to London without 
 delay. This was all that Peacock could tell me about 
 my ward. 
 
 I lost no time in going into the particulars of the 
 estate, which my factotum had brought back with 
 him. In addition to the small freehold on which my 
 testator had resided, there were investments, which, 
 in round figures, -produced an income of two hundred 
 and fifty pounds a year, and there was the sum of 
 a thousand pounds on deposit at a bank. This last 
 sum had been set aside to provide for the university 
 expenses. My ward's heritage, after payment gf 
 
 256
 
 The Calamity of Charles Hartrigg 
 
 debts and funeral and testamentary expenses, repre- 
 sented an income of rather more than three hundred 
 a year. There was a sum of a thousand pounds due 
 from a debtor in one of the South American republics, 
 which I did not take into account. It seamed clear 
 from certain correspondence, that had taken place 
 between the debtor and John Hartrigg, that the money 
 was irrecoverable. 
 
 It was only a few days after Peacock's f eturn that 
 Charles Hartrigg presented himself at my office. 
 Slightly under middle height, he was trim and com- 
 pact in build, with dark eyes and hair. There was 
 no shyness in his demeanour. As soon as we had 
 shaken hands, and the few colourless words of sym- 
 pathy, which the situation demanded, had been uttered 
 and acknowledged, he intimated that he was aware of 
 all the circumstances under which I had accepted the 
 guardianship, and was most anxious to make the re- 
 sponsibility which I had taken upon myself as little 
 troublesome as possible. But there was no cordiality 
 in his manner, and the grave chilly politeness of his 
 little set speech warned me that my charge required 
 careful handling, and that I must proceed with discre- 
 tion if I wished to obtain any influence over him. I 
 half suspected that he had been giving me a reminder 
 that his father had not intended to impose upon me 
 the onerous duties of an ordinary guardianship. 
 
 Nevertheless, my heart warmed towards the boy ; 
 for though the young face was full of reserve, there 
 
 257 S
 
 A Legal Practitioner 
 
 was much in it to remind one of the imp in the blue 
 cricket cap ; and, striving to read it as we talked on 
 matters of no importance, I made up my mind that if 
 I failed to win his confidence, the blame should rest 
 on his side, and not on mine. After all, there was 
 nothing unpromising in his behaviour ; the position 
 was a trying one for a boy of eighteen, and it was 
 natural enough that he should be on his dignity a 
 little at our first meeting. 
 
 I thought it good tactics to lay before him full 
 particulars of the trust estate, before touching on any 
 matters connected with the guardianship. Long ex- 
 perience in my profession had taught me that a 
 solicitor could best win the confidence of clients, in- 
 clined to be suspicious, if he encouraged them to probe 
 matters to the bottom, and took care that his explana- 
 tions should be elaborate in character though terse in 
 form, and that his performance should always be a 
 little better than his promise. The first two of these 
 rules I put in practice that day, and I determined 
 that time should give my ward assurance of the third. 
 When he had thawed a little under the spell of my 
 diplomacy, I approached the more delicate ground of 
 my guardianship obligations, and here, I think, I 
 advanced myself , in his good graces by asking him 
 what he considered the amount of his allowance ought 
 to be. At the same time I made it clear that it 
 would be my duty to carefully consider any figures 
 that he might put forward ; as though I was anxious 
 
 258
 
 The Calamity of Charles Hartrigg 
 
 to meet his wishes, which I felt sure would be reason- 
 able, I was bound to consider the rights of those who 
 would take the estate in the highly improbable event 
 of his dying under twenty-one. When matters had 
 reached this stage I brought the interview to an end. 
 It was not necessary for me to make any arrangements 
 for his immediate welfare. I had learned from Peacock 
 that he was to go up to Oxford in the course of two 
 or three weeks and that, in the mean time, he was to 
 stay with a schoolfellow, at whose home near the 
 Crystal Palace, he had more than once been a visitor 
 during the past few years. 
 
 " I think we shall hit it off all right together," 
 said I, at parting. 
 
 " I'm sure you won't be the one to blame if we 
 don't," was his answer, and in his handshake and his 
 voice there was an increase of cordiality beyond my 
 expectation. 
 
 When, two or three days later, Charles Hartrigg 
 submitted to me the figures of his proposed allowance, 
 the amount was so moderate that I was able to at 
 once agree to it. He dined with me at the club that 
 evening, and though I had looked forward to this as 
 something of an ordeal, I found the time slip by most 
 agreeably. The boy treated me with a respect that 
 was almost punctilious, but his manners were easy 
 and unembarrassed, and his talk betrayed an in- 
 telligence ripe beyond his years and free from any 
 taint of prigishness. 
 
 259
 
 A Legal Practitioner 
 
 A little later, however, I was not quite so well 
 pleased. We left the club early, and I took him to 
 my sister's, where I knew that his orphaned con- 
 dition would assure him of a welcome. At first all 
 went swimmingly. Host and hostess were charmed 
 with him, and it seemed to me that my niece Elsie 
 found him interesting. It is not easy to fathom the 
 watchful silence of demure fifteen, but there was an 
 unmistakable friendliness in her eyes when they 
 rested on him. It was not until my nephews had 
 made their appearing that the jarring note was struck. 
 Within ten minutes of their entrance, I became vaguely 
 conscious that they were not getting on with the visitor. 
 Observing this, and remembering that his father had 
 referred to his " aloofness," I was perhaps over-ready 
 to find offence in him ; but though I strove to clear 
 my mind of all prejudice, the impression that he was 
 treating Hal and Philip with an air of patronage and 
 superiority grew upon me, and as the evening wore 
 on this settled into a conviction. I felt a sense of 
 relief when, on the plea that he had a long way to go, 
 he made an early departure. 
 
 My nephews sat ominously silent while the rest 
 of the family sang his praises, but when, later on, 
 I smoked a pipe in their den upstairs, they pro- 
 nounced their verdict in good set terms. Much of 
 their talk with him had been almost unintelligible to 
 me ; but from what I had then caught, and from what 
 they said after he had gone, I gathered that though 
 
 260
 
 The Calamity of Charles Hartrigg 
 
 he had professed to despise all manly exercises, he was 
 fond of rowing, and had won some school distinction 
 as an oar. My nephews complained that even in 
 regard to rowing, his attitude had been painfully 
 superior ; he had gone in for it, he said, because you 
 must take exercise in some form, 
 
 In due time the boy went up to Oxford, and the 
 course of things was such that the duties of my 
 guardianship made no difference in the even tenor of 
 my life. There were occasional letters to and from 
 the ward, and now and again, there was some little 
 correspondence with his tutor, but nothing that did 
 not work in with the ordinary routine of my business. 
 The lad spent part of each vacation with his friends 
 at Sydenham : and there and in Gray's Inn, and at 
 the houses of my sister and of two or three of my 
 friends, to whom I had introduced him, we met one 
 another. But these meetings were not frequent, for 
 his visits to Sydenham rarely extended beyond a week 
 or ten days. The rest of the vacations was spent 
 with some cousins on his father's side, an old couple 
 living on a small estate in North Wales, whose guest 
 he had been from time to time, ever since his early 
 boyhood. So far as he knew, he had no other 
 relatives in the country. When he told me that his 
 mother's family was settled in South America, the 
 existence of that bad debt of a thousand pounds was 
 soon explained. The debtor was, in fact, one of his 
 maternal uncles. 
 
 261
 
 A Legal Practitioner 
 
 I liked my ward, and there was never any friction 
 in the relations between us, but though his conduct 
 was in all respects irreproachable, and I was always 
 glad to see him, I was conscious that my feeling 
 towards him did not deepen into affection. I had no 
 reason to suppose that his feeling towards me was 
 any warmer in its character, but I was gratified when, 
 at the end of his first term, he asked me to visit him 
 at Oxford ; and when, six months later, the invitation 
 was for the second time renewed, I accepted it, and 
 promised to give him a few days at the end of the 
 next Long Vacation. 
 
 262
 
 CHAPTEE III 
 
 How well I remember the incidents of that short 
 visit to Oxford, and the foolish longing it awoke in 
 me to have my youth again and reshape my career ! 
 I smile when I recall to memory the sentimental con- 
 dition in which I journeyed back to London ; but I 
 am not at all ashamed of it. What man of ripe age, 
 who has never been to college, can see Oxford for the 
 first time, and watch the young life with which it 
 throbs, without feeling that he has missed something 
 that can never be made good ? 
 
 On the night of my arrival it was arranged 
 between my ward and me as we sat over the fire, 
 that I should be left to my own devices during 
 the daytime. I did not want to interfere with his 
 studies, and just then there was a special demand 
 upon his time outside them ; for he was in training 
 for some rowing event " college-fours," I think he 
 called it. 
 
 Armed with a guide-book, I saw Oxford in my 
 own way. It was to a rustle of dead leaves that I 
 sauntered in gardens and quadrangles, but the sun 
 was hot and there was no touch of winter. Here 
 
 263
 
 A Legal Practitioner 
 
 and there one might have thought that spring had 
 come again. Tree and shrub wore the young green 
 of April, and over all there was blue sky, with an 
 ethereal mildness in the air. It is something to 
 have seen Oxford under such conditions ; and I give 
 thanks for those sweet days, when "chill October" 
 belied her name, and wooed me with the graces of 
 the springtime. 
 
 So the days of my visit slipped away. My ward 
 and I foregathered at lunchtime, and afterwards I 
 bore him company as far as the river. When twilight 
 came on I sought refuge in the Union and read the 
 papers. Dinner in hall followed. There I sat among 
 the boys, and we drank beer out of quaint silver 
 flagons, which had somehow escaped the melting- 
 pot during the Great Eebellion, and I ate with thank- 
 fulness the rations, which the young sinners about 
 me never spoke of without a grumble. In my ward's 
 panelled sitting-room, he and I smoked and chatted 
 till it was time for me to retire to the bedroom, which 
 the courtesy of the dean had placed at the guest's 
 disposal, and where I was ministered unto by 
 " Gentleman George," his reverence's own henchman. 
 
 " I hope I'm not keeping your friends away," I 
 remarked to my host one evening. It had just 
 occurred to me that though I had been with him for 
 three days, no visitor had presented himself. 
 
 "You'd like to see something of the men," he 
 answered, after a slight pause. 
 
 264
 
 The Calamity of Charles Hartrigg 
 
 "I've seen something of them in hall and in the 
 streets, but I've a very shadowy notion of what 
 they're like." 
 
 "Let's have some of them to breakfast to-morrow. 
 I shall be back in half a shake." 
 
 He was moving to the door as he said this, and 
 in less than ten minutes he was back again. 
 
 " Got your men ? " I asked. 
 
 "Oh yes, and seen to the food too." 
 
 "Hospitality moves on oiled wheels in Oxford," 
 thought I. 
 
 I look back upon that college breakfast as one of 
 the most trying events of my social career. I over- 
 slept myself a little, and when I reached my ward's 
 sitting-room, I found the hearth full of dishes, and 
 five or six red-cheeked young barbarians standing 
 round it, discussing athletics. I learned that morn- 
 ing what an old fossil I had become. Sports and 
 pastimes had played a pretty large part in my 
 school life, but the boys of my generation did not 
 live, and move, and have their being in them, to 
 the exclusion of all other interests. With these lads, 
 however, if one might judge them by their talk, 
 athletics were the be-all, and end-all, of existence. 
 The ceremony of introduction, and certain polite 
 inquiries whether I had seen this, that, or the 
 other guide-book wonder, which followed upon it, 
 checked the stream for a few minutes ; but no sooner 
 had the party settled down to the viands than the 
 
 265
 
 A Legal Practitioner 
 
 dammed-up waters burst forth and carried all before 
 them, 
 
 My ward made no sign that the talk was in any 
 way strange or trying, and he bore his full share in 
 it. In mercy to me, he made two or three attempts 
 to divert it into another channel, but his efforts and 
 such poor seconding, as I could offer, came to nothing ; 
 and I was fain at last to consume my breakfast in 
 silence, and with a vague sense that perhaps at 
 rny age I ought to be thankful that I could still 
 take an interest in food and drink. Pegging away 
 in this forlorn condition, I happened to lift my eyes 
 to Charles Hartrigg's face, and I found that he was 
 looking at me with a smile hovering about the corners 
 of his mouth. I strove to carry matters off with a 
 good grace by responding with a wink, but there was 
 a sense of injury rankling in my bosom; for the 
 expression of his face when I caught him unawares, 
 and the blush that followed, made me feel suspicious. 
 Was he enjoying the success of a practical joke at 
 my expense ? 
 
 "I'm afraid we've bored you awfully," he said, 
 with an air of apology, as soon as the last guest had 
 departed. 
 
 It was my turn to smile now. 
 
 " Some of them are ' freshers,' " he went on, a 
 little awkwardly; "the men here aren't all like 
 that." 
 
 I did not make any answer, for I was busy 
 266
 
 The Calamity of Charles Hartrigg 
 
 examining the bookshelves. Rain was falling, and 
 I wanted something substantial to read. I decided 
 at last upon Matthew Arnold's poems ; it seemed such 
 a capital opportunity of renewing one's acquaintance 
 with Thyrsis and the Scholar Gipsy. I did not leave 
 the bookcase, however. The more I examined my 
 ward's books, the more I was struck by their number 
 and quality; so I continued to potter about among 
 them while he read the newspaper !at the fireside. In 
 returning a volume to its place on one of the lower 
 shelves, I happened to espy a book that had fallen 
 behind the row. This proved to be a small quarto, 
 squat and black, bound in faded leather and tied with 
 leathern thongs like bootlaces. 
 
 " Hulloa ! What's this ? " said I, as I rose from 
 my knees and began to study the title-page. It was 
 in Latin, and the imprint was Amsterdam, with a 
 date near the end of the fifteenth century. My 
 latinity is nothing to boast of, but it proved sufficient 
 to give me a general notion of the book's contents. 
 It was a black-letter treatise upon the occult sciences 
 of the Middle Ages. 
 
 " On magic, apparently," said I, a little later. I 
 spoke more loudly, as my ward had made no response 
 to my first ejaculation, and I had taken it for granted 
 he was engrossed in his newspaper. But on looking 
 towards him as I spoke, I found that he had turned 
 round in his chair and was watching me. 
 
 "What's this part about?" I asked, when he 
 267
 
 A Legal Practitioner 
 
 had crossed the room and was looking down at the 
 page from over my shoulder. 
 
 He took the book and pored over the crabbed 
 Latin. 
 
 " So far as I can make out, its something about 
 the dematerialization of the spirit," he said, at length. 
 
 "What's that?" 
 
 " Those old chaps seem to have thought that the 
 soul could be made to separate itself from the body 
 and wander about at its own sweet will." 
 
 "Do you take an interest in such rubbish ?" I 
 asked, with a smile of contempt. 
 
 " I think it's rather interesting," he answered. 
 " I picked this up at a bookstall here ; I mean to plod 
 through it some day." 
 
 Nothing more was said ; though when I resumed 
 my investigation of the bookcase, I came upon two or 
 three modern books, or reprints, dealing with occult 
 subjects. " I suppose it's the fashion here now, to 
 play with these mysteries, instead of blue china and 
 peacocks' feathers," thought I, as I settled down to 
 the ever-delightful Thyrsis. Before dusk that after- 
 noon I had paid the two Hinkseys the tribute of a 
 pilgrimage. 
 
 In the course of our long evening gossips, Charles 
 Hartrigg announced his desire to read for the bar. I, 
 of course, had no objection to offer. His father had 
 been a barrister; he was himself, I felt sure, en- 
 dowed with the necessary stock of brains, and, what 
 
 268
 
 The Calamity of Charles Hartrigg 
 
 was almost as important, he had means adequate to 
 support him as a gentleman during the ten years or 
 thereabouts, which, except in special cases, must 
 elapse before a barrister has learnt his business and 
 is competent to assume its responsibilities. I thought 
 it well to let him know that he must reach that stage 
 of his development before he could expect much help 
 from me. 
 
 But though I discussed his proposal without en- 
 thusiasm, I inwardly rejoiced over it ; for our evening 
 talks had satisfied me that he had natural gifts for 
 the calling which he had chosen. No solicitor of my 
 age and standing can have failed to hive in his 
 memory a store of professional recollections, but if he 
 be a wise man, he will be very chary of drawing upon 
 it in the society of the uninitiated. I am as careful 
 on this point as most men, but on the night of my 
 arrival I fell most grievously. Tempted by some 
 remark which my ward had made upon the day's 
 news, I found myself involved in the recital of a long 
 and rather technical story of malpractices on the 
 Stock Exchange ; and to my surprise he followed it 
 with marked interest, and showed by his questions 
 that he was anxious to have every point made clear 
 to him. Encouraged by this, I did not shrink, as 
 and when occasion arose, to draw upon Imy budget of 
 strange cases, and I was often astonished at his 
 eagerness to fully understand all the details, and 
 Jiis nice appreciation of anything that savoured of 
 
 269
 
 A Legal Practitioner 
 
 diplomacy. What particularly struck me was his 
 interest in the motives that had swayed the person- 
 ages of my stories, and the relish with which he 
 hailed any touch of character. 
 
 When I recall those evenings, the old college room 
 with its green panelling and dim lamplight rises 
 before me, and I see my ward's neat figure and 
 listening face ; as with his eyes fixed on mine, he 
 lies back in his chair, one leg thrown over the other, 
 and both hands on his knee, grasping his pipe. 
 
 270
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 NOT long after my visit to Oxford, Charles Hartrigg 
 was entered as a student of his father's Inn, the 
 Middle Temple. On his periodical visits to town to 
 eat his dinners, he always paid his duty to me in 
 Gray's Inn, and I do not think he ever missed 
 spending at least one evening at my sister's. By 
 this time Hal and Philip were earning their bread in 
 distant parts of the empire, and Elsie's schooldays 
 were over. My ward had become such a friend of the 
 house, that his twenty-first birthday was celebrated 
 by a little festival held under its roof. Accounts 
 between us were soon adjusted, but the termination 
 of my guardianship made no difference in our social 
 relations. 
 
 In due cause Charles Hartrigg took his degree. 
 He had told me a few months before that he had no 
 intention of reading for honours. I was a little 
 surprised ; but it was too late to alter his determina- 
 tion ; so I acquiesced in it, almost without comment. 
 In the last letter which I received from his tutor, 
 that worthy man spoke of my ward's conduct as 
 exemplary, but expressed regret that he had not 
 
 271
 
 A Legal Practitioner 
 
 attempted to distinguish himself in the schools. The 
 letter also said, what a pity it was that he had not 
 taken fuller advantage of the opportunity which a 
 university career offers, of laying the foundation of 
 valuable and lasting friendships. "He will carry 
 that aloofness to his grave," thought I, as I read this. 
 I had come to the conclusion long before, that the 
 guests at the breakfast-party had been mere boating 
 acquaintances, whom he had called together on the 
 spur of the moment. 
 
 On leaving Oxford, he established himself in a 
 comfortable set of furnished rooms in Bedford Place, 
 and entered the chambers of Mr. Trevor Hampson, 
 an eminent member of the junior bar, whom I had 
 recommended. Before this arrangement was made, I 
 had offered the student a seat in my office for a few 
 months, in order that he might gain a practical 
 knowledge of legal routine. Rather to my relief, this 
 offer was, after consideration, declined. 
 
 It was some eight or nine months after Charles 
 Hartrigg had left Oxford, that one afternoon he paid 
 me an unexpected visit. It was the last day of the old 
 year. My clerks had all gone, and I was in no hurry 
 to make a move to my living-rooms in Verulam 
 Buildings. When I heard his knock, I was sitting 
 at a lonely hearth, meditating somewhat ruefully on 
 things in general and the past twelve months in 
 particular. As soon as I had let him in, I felt sure 
 that he had some good news to communicate. Never 
 
 272
 
 The Calamity of Charles Hartrigg 
 
 had I seen his face so animated, and never had his 
 greeting been so demonstrative. 
 
 " Elsie has promised to marry me," he said, his 
 hand still in mine. 
 
 I was not surprised; no one who had had my 
 opportunities of seeing her and the lad together 
 during the last few months, could have felt much 
 doubt as to how matters stood between them. I had 
 dropped a hint to my sister on the subject, but only 
 to find that she was eager for the match. After this, 
 my niece was much in my thoughts, and in the end 
 I came to the unsatisfactory conclusion, that, though 
 I scarcely knew why, I was sorry she had not given 
 her heart to some one else. But I kept my reflections 
 to myself; and I do not think that there was 
 anything lacking in the congratulations with which 
 I received Charles Hartrigg's announcement of the 
 betrothal. 
 
 "We're not to be married for two years," he 
 said, as soon as he had established himself on the 
 opposite side of the fireplace. " I shall be nearly 
 twenty-five then, and Elsie will be over twenty." 
 
 I was well pleased to sit and listen to his 
 rhapsodies on his lady-love. Elsie is very dear to 
 me, and my heart warmed towards her lover as he 
 sang her praises. He looked a mere boy as he sat 
 there, with a flush on his face and his eyes bright 
 with happiness. I am no advocate of very young 
 marriages, but as I watched him and my thoughts 
 
 273 T
 
 A Legal Practitioner 
 
 played about his talk there was no disapproval in 
 my mind. There was only that mixed feeling, half 
 envy and half pity, with which a man of my years 
 looks upon the exuberant joyfulness of the young. 
 
 "You'll be called in about another year, won't 
 you ? " I asked, when he came to a pause in his recital 
 of my niece's perfections. 
 
 "Yes; and Hampson gave me a hint yesterday, 
 that if I cared to stay on with him after my twelve 
 months was up, he thought it could be arranged. It 
 will be a fine thing if I can stick to his chambers. 
 He'll be taking silk some day, and that'll let loose a 
 lot of work. I ought to get enough of it to start me." 
 
 I had reason to know that Mr. Hampson was 
 pleased with his pupil; but the wish to keep him 
 after the term of pupilage had expired, was an un- 
 expected piece of good fortune. It spoke volumes 
 for the lad's industry and capability. Truly, the 
 dying year seemed to be heaping gifts upon him with 
 both hands. 
 
 "How like the old shop this place is," said the 
 lover, as he looked round my room. 
 
 By this time I had produced a box of cigars 
 from its hiding-place, and we were both smoking. 
 It is not often that any eye but my own beholds 
 that solace of my official hours. There was a pair 
 of candles above us on the mantelpiece; but my 
 room is spacious and lofty, and the further end 
 was in shadow. As I watched the firelight playing 
 
 274
 
 The Calamity of Charles Hartrigg 
 
 upon cornice and panelling, and I recalled his 
 quarters at Oxford, I agreed that they were very like 
 my sanctum. 
 
 "By-the-by, did you ever read that old Latin 
 book?" 
 
 This was a mere casual question suggested by his 
 last remark ; but it seemed to make him uncomfort- 
 able. He gave a slight start, and he paused before 
 he answered me. 
 
 "Yes! Oh yes; I read it." He spoke indif- 
 ferently, but I noticed that he was scanning me with 
 half-shut eyes, and that his lips had tightened. I 
 fancied there was suspicion in his fixed gaze. 
 
 "There's something fascinating in that old 
 notion of the soul getting loose from the body. I 
 thought of it several times after I left Oxford." 
 
 I said this to let him understand that I had no 
 intention of making game of him. The fact was, I 
 had remembered the book late one night as I sat 
 before the fire half asleep; and as I thought over 
 what he had told me about the theory of the old 
 magicians, the possibilities that it opened up were 
 so startling and bewildering, that all my drowsiness 
 vanished, and when at length I went to bed, I lay 
 awake with my mind full of them. 
 
 He said nothing, but there was no longer any 
 suspicion in his eyes. We smoked in silence for 
 awhile. 
 
 '* The fabric of society would fall to pieces if men 
 275
 
 A Legal Practitioner 
 
 could let loose their souls," said I, giving expression 
 to the train of thought that was passing through my 
 mind. "Just think what would happen! The old 
 theory of demoniac possession was wild enough, but 
 if a man wmld enter into another man's being, he 
 could control that being and " 
 
 " They never pretended to do that," interrupted 
 my listener. 
 
 " What did they pretend to do?" 
 
 " The spirit is, of course, invisible " he began 
 
 hesitatingly. 
 
 " Oh ! " said I, taking advantage of the pause. 
 " I think I understand now. The spirit would be in- 
 visible, but in all other respects it would be what the 
 body was. Is that it ? " 
 
 " It would be intangible as well as invisible, and I 
 suppose material barriers would offer it no resistance." 
 
 " In other words, it could enter people's houses 
 and outrage the privacy of men and women. Not a 
 very dignified occupation for the soul ! " 
 
 " Think of the power it would give ! You could 
 know all that people said and did, from the queen 
 downwards." There was a glitter in the lad's eyes 
 as he said this. 
 
 " Oh yes ! The very thing for a blackmailer or 
 a gambler on the Stock Exchange. But that would 
 be sheer blackguardism." 
 
 " I never thought of that. Yes j there is that to 
 be said against it." 
 
 276
 
 The Calamity of Charles Hartrigg 
 
 " That and a few other things," I answered, 
 laughing; "but society would avenge itself in the 
 long run. If any man had that gift and was despic- 
 able enough to practise it, it would bring its own 
 punishment. It stands to reason he'd lose all touch 
 with his fellows. He'd be on a different plane 
 altogether; he'd be a monster. He'd soon be glad 
 to cut his throat and have done with everything." 
 
 Charles Hartrigg did not join in my merriment. 
 There was a brooding look on his face as he stared 
 absently into the shadows, where the gleams of fire- 
 light were still dancing. 
 
 " You think it might come to that ? " he said at 
 length. 
 
 " I'm certain of it." 
 
 " Nothing could make up for that nothing." 
 
 I felt sure that he had been weighing the mythical 
 gift against Elsie, and all the promise of the future, 
 and I smiled at his earnestness. 
 
 "And, after all, we've got to find out the secret 
 first," he added gaily. "It isn't as if we were put 
 to our election." 
 
 I laughed at this legal phrase as I made my way 
 to answer a modest knock from the landing without. 
 It was the Inn lamplighter applying for his Christmas- 
 box. When the man had departed, after censing me 
 with his New Year wishes, I found my visitor ready 
 to take his leave, and a minute later he had hurried 
 off to keep tryst with his betrothed. 
 
 277
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 THE new year wore on, and to my eyes everything 
 seemed rose-coloured with Elsie and her lover. But 
 when, after a two months' holiday abroad, I paid 
 my sister one of my usual evening visits, I had not 
 been in the house for more than five minutes when I 
 began to see that something was amiss. My opening 
 inquiries after the young people were received by the 
 parent birds with such an air of constraint, that when, 
 a moment later, Elsie appeared, looking worn and 
 pale, I thought it better to burst into a recital of my 
 holiday adventures, and steer clear of Charles 
 Hartrigg and all subjects likely to bring up his 
 name. 
 
 " Anything wrong ? " I whispered to my sister, 
 as soon as an opportunity presented itself. 
 
 " We're afraid so ; but we don't know. We've 
 seen next to nothing of him for the last fortnight. 
 For weeks before that he was here very little." 
 
 " You haven't spoken to Elsie ? " 
 
 " She knows how uneasy we are. She won't say 
 anything till she's made up her mind. That's 
 Elsie's way." 
 
 278
 
 The Calamity of Charles Hartrigg 
 
 " Good-bye, little mouse," said I, as I held my 
 niece's hand at the street door. "It's a long time 
 since you and I floated our powerful minds to- 
 gether. The Gray's Inn tea-pot still keeps up its 
 reputation." 
 
 That afternoon brewage of mine had often been 
 a subject of jest between us, and more than once 
 Elsie had honoured my quarters to partake of it. 
 
 " Can't I be of any use ? " I asked, in answer to 
 her wan little smile of acknowledgment. I looked 
 at her as I spoke, and I thought it better to make a 
 rapid exit without waiting for an answer. 
 
 " A bad business damn him ! " said I, as I 
 slammed the door behind me. In imagination I saw 
 my niece flying upstairs to find relief in a burst of 
 crying, and my wrath was boiling. 
 
 I was not long kept in doubt as to the state of 
 affairs. Next day Elsie made her appearance in 
 Gray's Inn, and I knew what had happened as soon 
 as I looked into her face. It was pale and drawn, 
 and the brown eyes, that I had been wont to think 
 the brightest and joyfullest things in my world, were 
 lustreless and heavy. But they and the firm lips 
 spoke of resolution and a settled purpose. Elsie had 
 made up her mind. 
 
 "All over, Elsie?" 
 
 "All over, Uncle Chris." 
 
 Her tone was so unfaltering that I ventured to 
 look again into her face. It made my heart ache ; 
 
 279
 
 A Legal Practitioner 
 
 but I felt sure that now the blow had fallen, it had 
 come as a relief. The torture of uncertainly was 
 done with at last. 
 
 " I've told mother," she went on ; " and I thought 
 I should like to tell you, myself." 
 
 " Thank you, my dear." 
 
 " You'll go away for a time, won't you ? " I said, 
 after a pause. 
 
 "Yes; I shall go to the Morisons in Paris. 
 Nancy has a studio there ; I shall share that with 
 her. Mrs. Morison will look after us both." 
 
 "I suppose I'd better ask some questions, and 
 get it all over. Did you break off the engagement ? " 
 
 " I offered to. I got this letter this morning." 
 
 I took the letter and read it through three times. 
 It was addressed from Clifford's Inn, and its opening 
 was conventional. There was the usual gratitude for 
 the other's frankness, the usual regret that a fuller 
 knowledge had taught them their unfitness for one 
 another, and the usual acknowledgment that all the 
 fault was on one side. So far, the letter was common- 
 form to a legal eye ; but there were a few sentences 
 near the end, which rang differently. In them the 
 writer seemed to express a genuine grief that there 
 must be a parting, and a genuine remorse that he 
 should be the one to blame, and a full consciousness 
 that he had thrown away his only chance of 
 happiness. My anger and contempt were softened 
 by a touch of pity as I sat pondering ; for besides 
 
 280
 
 The Calamity of Charles Hartrigg 
 
 these sentences there was a postcript "Ask your 
 uncle to judge me as leniently as he can. I know 
 what a bad return I have made." 
 
 " I suppose this really is the end," I said, as I 
 handed back the letter. " You know best." 
 
 " I don't think he's quite responsible for what he 
 does," was the answer. 
 
 "Has it been going on for long? " 
 
 "Nearly four months. It began by his not 
 keeping appointments, and after he left Bedford 
 Place, it got worse and worse. It was unbearable. 
 He wasn't like himself ; I can't explain what he was 
 like, I can't make you understand " 
 
 "We won't talk about it," I said hastily; for 
 there was a piteous fluttering about the girl's hands, 
 which was more than I could bear. 
 
 " I won't break down, Uncle Chris. I want you to 
 know that I haven't been exacting or unreasonable. 
 I felt sure, soon after you went away, that he was 
 taking some drug." 
 
 I looked at her with a start. Was this the expla- 
 nation ? 
 
 " But it wasn't that," she went on in answer to 
 my look. "I let him know what I thought, and he 
 vowed I was mistaken. And I think I was. It's 
 dreadful to say it, but I think he's mad. And I 
 want to ask you one thing you won't turn your 
 back on him if he wants help, will you ? I shall 
 never see him again, and I won't ask you any 
 
 281
 
 A Legal Practitioner 
 
 questions ; but, dear Uncle Chris, I do want to be 
 able to think that he isn't quite alone in the world." 
 
 The poor little hands were all a-flutter once again . 
 and when I held them in my own and gave the promise, 
 Elsie's tears broke forth. We took a turn in the 
 gardens as soon as she had recovered herself. Up 
 and down, under the yellowing plane trees of the 
 middle alley, we paced for half an hour without a 
 word, and I think that the old world peacefulness of 
 the surroundings comforted her a little. 
 
 " Beastly rat hole, this ! " I said to myself, as, later 
 in the day, I twisted my way up the winding-stair that 
 led to the attics in Clifford's Inn, from which Charles 
 Hartrigg had addressed his letter. I had thought 
 matters out, and had come to the conclusion that 
 the sooner I could see him the better. " Get it over 
 and done with," is my maxim when there is unpleasant 
 business to be handled. I did not share Elsie's belief 
 that the lad's mind was affected, but having regard to 
 the promise I had given, I felt bound to make such 
 an investigation as lay within my power. If, after 
 all, she turned out to be right, there would be a strong 
 moral responsibility on me to do my best for him. 
 Now that I had had an interval for reflection, I felt 
 no desire to punish or humiliate him. Mad or sane, 
 there was an end of the engagement, and I had found 
 myself dwelling upon this reflection with a sense of 
 relief that had gone far to abate my wrath. 
 
 The outer door of the chambers stood open, but no 
 282
 
 The Calamity of Charles Hartrigg 
 
 answer was returned to my repeated rappings on the 
 inner door. As I stood on the mouldy landing, I 
 became conscious that somewhere near at hand a 
 violent and continuous hammering was in progress. 
 Thinking that there must be workmen engaged inside, 
 and that this noise had overpowered the sound of the 
 knocker, I tried the handle, and the door opened before 
 me. The noise was now almost deafening. I crossed 
 the lobby, and after knocking without result at a door 
 in front of me, I opened it and found myself in a small 
 sitting-room. From the glance that I cast around, 
 before I was satisfied that it was empty, I learned 
 that it was squalidly furnished, and that the light came 
 in dimly through dirty windows hung with faded cur- 
 tains of red baize. The only sign of life was a black 
 kitten, well-nourished and very fluffy, which sat wink- 
 ing and blinking on one of the window-seats. Through 
 a half-open door on my right, I could see something 
 of an adjoining room with a bed in it. My nose 
 warned me that the air of the place was stale and 
 heavy, and that it bore a suspicion of mice and an 
 all-pervading odour of dryrot. I now knew that the 
 hammering came from the adjoining set of chambers. 
 The dry woodwork of the partitions between, rever- 
 berated like a drum. 
 
 I was about to beat a hasty retreat, when my eye 
 fell on the bed in the next room, and I saw that 
 Charles Hartrigg was stretched upon it, motionless 
 and fully dressed. That he could sleep through such 
 
 283
 
 A Legal Practitioner 
 
 an uproar was so surprising that, in my astonish- 
 ment, I advanced a step or two in order to get a 
 better view. My foot caught in the ragged carpet, 
 and I stumbled forward in a cloud of dust. I was on 
 the threshold of the bedroom when I recovered myself. 
 The next instant I had stepped back horror-struck, 
 for a lifeless body was before me. Bigid upon his 
 back, with dropped jaw and staring eyes, lay Charles 
 Hartrigg. When I was steady enough to move forward 
 and look down upon him, I was conscious of another 
 cold thrill; for the clenched hands and wrought 
 features told of a hard struggle. 
 
 At the bed head, hard by the old latticed window, 
 I stood stupefied, my brain drumming to the noise of 
 the hammering. 
 
 " Death settles all scores," said I at length, and my 
 thoughts turned to the bright promise of less than a 
 year ago. I took the hand nearest to me and pressed 
 it in token of reconciliation and farewell. But no 
 sooner had my fingers closed upon the cold flesh, 
 than I felt the body start and shudder under the 
 contact. 
 
 This last shock was too much for my nerves. As 
 I snatched away my hand, my head swam, and I had 
 to cling to the window-seat for support. But my eyes 
 were still upon the figure on the bed ; and though the 
 whole thing passed in a flash, I was conscious that 
 to a twitching of the limbs and a convulsion of the 
 features, the jaw righted itself and the eyelids fell. 
 
 284
 
 The Calamity of Charles Hartrigg 
 
 For a moment the body lay motionless ; then, slowly 
 and languidly, the eyes opened. Though they met 
 mine, there was neither life nor comprehension in 
 them. But the next instant they were aflame with 
 terror, and with great drops of perspiration standing 
 on his forehead, Charles Hartrigg was staring up into 
 my face like a wild animal at bay. 
 
 "This is a terrible business," said I, at length. 
 My eyes had fallen before that dreadful glare, and 
 I had taken time to collect my thoughts. The 
 hammering had ceased; and, during the pause, the 
 silence had been so intense that I had heard 
 the kitten washing itself at the further end of the 
 next room. 
 
 "That you should have taken to the drug 
 habit " I went on; and, being unable to pro- 
 ceed, my eyes sought his face. The terror had gone 
 out of it, and it was dull and heavy, but in such 
 expression as it wore I seemed to read a sense of 
 relief. Slowly and painfully he dragged himself up 
 into a sitting posture, his shoulders supported by 
 the bed-head. Speechless and inert, he leaned back 
 all of a heap, quite motionless except for a slight 
 twitching of the fingers. I thought of Elsie's flutter- 
 ing hands, and I wondered whether she had ever 
 seen him in this bemused and abject state. 
 
 "It's no good saying anything now perhaps it 
 never will be any good. But I want you to know 
 this whatever I may think of what has gone by, you 
 
 285
 
 A Legal Practitioner 
 
 needn't look upon me as an enemy. If I can be of 
 any use, don't be afraid to call upon me." 
 
 I had recovered myself by this time, and I waa 
 speaking gravely, and without any trace of anger ; but 
 when I reached this point he raised one hand to 
 stop me. 
 
 "You're not speaking for yourself," he began 
 huskily. " You don't feel like that no man could. 
 It was Elsie " 
 
 The mention of the name was too much for him. 
 Moving heavily and wearily, like one in the last stage 
 of exhaustion, he turned away from me ; and slipping 
 down upon the pillow, he lay there with his face 
 buried in his hands. I caught the sound of a low 
 moan, and I saw his shoulders quiver. 
 
 I was so shaken that I passed from the bedside to 
 the staircase without being conscious of any interval. 
 When I had carefully shut the " oak " behind me, 
 I was glad to lean against it, for I was sick and 
 giddy. The staircase window was open, and here the 
 air was fresh and invigorating compared with that 
 inside. 
 
 " What a lair ; what a den ! " I ejaculated, as soon 
 as I was in a condition to think at all. " He must 
 have taken it over from the last tenant just as it 
 stood. What a hurry " 
 
 I broke off with a start, for a rustling sound at 
 my feet made my disordered nerves quiver. It was 
 only the black kitten playing with a dead leaf. 
 
 286
 
 The Calamity of Charles Hartrigg 
 
 " I must get out of this place," said I, rousing 
 myself; " all this must be walked off." 
 
 " And he vowed to Elsie that he wasn't drugging 
 himself," I mused, as I made my way downstairs. 
 " It was hardly worth his while to tell the lie." 
 
 "Was it a lie, though?" was my next thought. 
 " Whoever heard of a drug taking all the life out of 
 a man like that? And why did the pressure of a 
 hand wake him up, if he could sleep through all that 
 noise ? " 
 
 I stopped dead; for a suspicion which took my 
 breath away had flashed upon me, and through my 
 brain there was surging a crowd of memories and 
 images, that made it reel. When this chaos had sub- 
 sided, the suspicion had hardened into a certainty. I 
 knew now what calamity had befallen him. The secret 
 of the old magicians had been unveiled. Charles 
 Hartrigg had been put to his election, after all. 
 
 287
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 MY walking powers are not what they were when I was 
 twenty years younger, but I had tramped as far as 
 Fulham, before the ferment in my brain had calmed 
 down enough to allow my physical members to 
 remind me that I was weary, and that my inner man 
 was empty. 9 
 
 I took a cab to the club, where to the best of my 
 belief, I dined and conversed with my fellows and 
 played my rubber much as I was wont to do, though 
 all the time there was a feeling upon me that it was 
 not a real world that I was moving in. But vivid 
 though the feeling was, there lay behind it a full 
 consciousness of the reality of the shadows that beset 
 me ; for again and again, when I longed to wake up 
 and find that all was a bad dream, I chided myself 
 for my foolishness in craving for the impossible. 
 
 It was midnight before I left the eardroom ; and 
 when I gained my own chamber, and heard fche 
 Inn clock chime hour after hour, as I sat over my 
 solitary fire, a sense of calamity so overpowering grew 
 upon me that my head sank into my hands, and I 
 wept like a child. But the next instant a new terror 
 
 288
 
 The Calamity of Charles Hartrigg 
 
 flashed across my brain, and I found myself on my 
 feet, eager to hide all trace of my weakness, as 
 though I had been disturbed by an onlooker. How 
 could I be sure that, unseen by me, the miserable 
 being from whose presence I had fled that afternoon 
 was not at my side ? This was the reflection that 
 had stung me into activity. And humiliating though 
 it was, it brought me to myself ; for pity and all other 
 gentler emotions gave way to a feeling of blind rage 
 that any fellow-creature should have gained dominion 
 over my privacy. 
 
 "You may spy, and pry, and eavesdrop here, 
 until you get sick of it ! " I cried aloud. " There's 
 nothing to hide from you in my dull life." 
 
 I spoke the truth, but for many, many days a 
 sense of the possible presence of that invisible 
 watcher was never long absent from my thoughts ; 
 and strange to say, the habit which solitude 
 engenders, and which in a lonely man, 'is knitted up 
 to every fibre of his being, fell from me like a 
 garment. I made no resolution on the subject, nor 
 did I even think of it; but long months afterwards, 
 I overheard a man talking to himself, and I awoke to 
 the knowledge that never since my vigil of that early 
 morning had I uttered a thought aloud. 
 
 Fortunately, no healthy man who has a business 
 to attend to, can remain for ever a victim to his 
 imagination. As time went on, my thoughts 
 returned to their ordinary channels, and I was able 
 
 289 U
 
 A Legal Practitioner 
 
 to smoke my last pipe over the fire with all my old 
 tranquillity of mind. But I was hag-ridden during the 
 watches of the night, long after Charles Hartrigg had 
 ceased to trouble my dreams ; for had I ever the ill- 
 fortune to wake up in the f"uall hours, woe betide me ! 
 If at that dead time sleep forsook me for only a 
 moment, the question, which, in my waking hours I 
 could now put aside with unconcern drove me nearly 
 frantic. " How and where is that boy's spirit 
 employing itself ? " the inward voice would ask, and 
 straightway the brain would rouse itself, and be all 
 a-fever to find an answer. But this was a hopeless 
 task for an imagination such as mine. Powerless to 
 soar into the regions of its quest, but master for the 
 time being of the poor body that cried aloud for sleep, 
 my mind could do no more than beat its wings 
 against the bounds that caged it. And all the time, 
 the lair that smelt and tasted of dryrot, the squalid 
 bed, and the rigid figure stretched upon it, were a 
 horrid physical reality ; and my bedroom in Verulam 
 Buildings seemed to jhange into an attic under the 
 tiles of Clifford's Inn, with Charles Hartrigg lying 
 there insensible a dead maggot in a rotten nut. 
 
 Soon after the end of the Long Vacation Mr. 
 Trevor Hampson had begun to bestir himself. 
 
 " What on earth has happened to the boy ? " was 
 his opening question, when in answer to a note, I had 
 looked in at his chambers. Mr. Hampson's business 
 is so enormous that these chambers are a sort of 
 
 290
 
 The Calamity of Charles Hartrigg 
 
 factory for the production of legal drafts. He him- 
 self, represents the driving power and his " devils " 
 and other helpers are the looms and spindles of the 
 concern. 
 
 " He's the best pupil I ever had. I never came 
 across a youngster with such a head. The way he 
 got up the figures in one or two City cases was 
 astonishing. Such a neat draftsman, too ! He 
 worked like a galley-slave until after Whitsuntide. 
 Then he got a bit slack. I thought he seemed so run 
 down that I packed him off for a holiday before the 
 Vacation began. He hasn't shown his face here 
 since." 
 
 " He may have been here, nevertheless," thought 
 I ; "he may be here, even now." But I said nothing. 
 
 " He takes no notice of my letters." 
 
 Mr. Hampson rose irritably to his feet and stood 
 on the rug. 
 
 " What does it all mean ? " he asked confidentially. 
 
 " I know nothing of his movements." 
 
 "He's got into some mess, and the young fool 
 thinks he's done for. Shall I go and talk to him ? " 
 
 " I wouldn't if I were you," I answered gloomily ; 
 and seeing that he was not satisfied, I tapped my 
 forehead. 
 
 " Good God ! " ejaculated the busy little man. 
 " Who'd have thought it possible ! " 
 
 The pause that followed did not last for half a 
 minute, but it was long enough to clear Mr. Hampson's 
 
 291
 
 A Legal Practitioner 
 
 mind of Charles Hartrigg once and for all. One of 
 the machines had broken down beyond repair ; another 
 must be provided in its place. That was the end of 
 the matter. 
 
 " So sorry ! " he said, as he offered me his hand ; 
 and before I had reached the door, he was deep in 
 the set of papers, which he had been reading when 
 I was shown in. 
 
 Later on, a little bromide, supplemented by a fort- 
 night at Sandwich, put an end to my terrors by 
 night, and as the months slipped by, all sense of 
 being watched died away. Common sense told me 
 that however unscrupulously Charles Hartrigg might 
 practise his accursed gift, there was nothing in the 
 common round of my life to make it worth his while 
 to spy upon me, and I began to wonder over, and half 
 doubt, the recollection of what I had gone through. 
 
 But one Sunday evening, long after I had shaken 
 off my spectres, I had an unexpected reminder of all 
 that I had suffered at their hands. Elsie had taken 
 me to church, and, as the sermon proceeded, my mind 
 sank into lethargy. But my ears still took in the 
 preacher's words, and a mention of the omniscient and 
 all-seeing Eye brought me up with a start. While 
 the good man was enlarging upon the sense of com- 
 fort and security, which a knowledge of being always 
 watched over must bring to all of us, many things 
 passed through my mind, and I scanned the faces of 
 such of the worshippers as were within my range. 
 
 292
 
 The Calamity of Charles Hartrigg 
 
 The bland and rather bored acquiescence, that beamed 
 from most of them clashed so oddly with my recol- 
 lections that I fell to wondering how many of my 
 neighbours could go on living their lives of that day 
 and the days before it, if they attached any rational 
 meaning to the familiar words. Buried in the specu- 
 lations to which this thought gave rise, I lost all 
 sense of the time and place, until a gentle nudge 
 brought me back to things seen, and to a knowledge 
 that the preacher was relating a deathbed anecdote, 
 and that I was gazing up at him with a sardonic grin, 
 which stretched from ear to ear. 
 
 My next reminder was of a more tragic kind. It 
 came upon me as I was strolling along Fleet Street 
 on my way to Somerset House, one May afternoon 
 more than two years after my visit to Clifford's Inn. 
 
 I was hard by Child's Bank when I happened to 
 notice a man some twenty paces ahead. It was the 
 lifeless abstraction of his air, as he moved slowly 
 towards me, staring in front of him and evidently 
 seeing nothing, that attracted my notice; and as 
 I scrutinized him, I saw that his whole aspect was 
 shabby and neglected. Woefully thin and pinched, 
 his clothes hung about him as if they had been made 
 for one of stouter build, and I marked that his hat- 
 brim had been in the wars, and that the tie which 
 hung below his filthy collar was not buttoned inside 
 his waistcoat. At first sight I had set him down for 
 a Fleet Street waif, a hanger-on to the foul fringe of 
 
 293
 
 A Legal Practitioner 
 
 sporting journalism, but as we passed one another, 
 I saw that he was no wastrel of that type. I felt a 
 shiver run through me ; for there was something un- 
 canny in his lack-lustre, absent eyes. And that was 
 not all. My glance at close quarters had called up 
 some half-forgotten image of bygone days, which had 
 brought me to a standstill and set my memory work- 
 ing. The thing I was groping for was some other 
 face of ill-omen, grey, hollow, and thin-bearded, but 
 not with those eyes. The next moment I had wheeled 
 round. Identification had followed in a flash, and in 
 my mind's eye I had a clear picture of John Hartrigg 
 sitting in my office chair and giving instructions for 
 his will. 
 
 The man who had called up this vision, was still 
 crawling eastward, his hands clasped behind him and 
 his shoulders bent, and he looked neither to the right 
 hand nor to the left. I had taken him to be some 
 worn-out wretch of fifty or thereabouts ; but, gazing 
 after him and recalling his features, I knew that, 
 notwithstanding those haunted eyes, and the weedy 
 beard that covered so much of the face below them, 
 he was Charles Hartrigg and no other ; and with a 
 sense of desolation I remembered that he was five 
 and twenty. As I watohed him I received assurance 
 that the weird look, which had so moved me was no 
 freak of my imagination, for I saw more than one 
 casual wayfarer stare at him as he passed, and then 
 turn to look back. It was many hours later, when 
 
 294
 
 The Calamity of Charles Hartrigg 
 
 over my last pipe, I thought over this, that a fragment 
 of Shakespeare came into my mind 
 
 " Your face, my thane, is as a book where men 
 May read strange matters." 
 
 My third reminder came home in a very curious 
 way. The editor of the Posthorn is an old friend of 
 mine. I found myself seated opposite to him in the 
 club dining-room one evening not long after reminder 
 number two. 
 
 "Getting near the time for you to begin your 
 day's work ! " said I, cheerful in the consciousness 
 that I had finished mine. " Your Posthorn played a 
 queer tune last week." 
 
 The paper had astonished the world by an 
 announcement that a great political leader, who was 
 reported to be slightly indisposed, was stricken with 
 a mortal disease, and would never again be seen by 
 the public eye. The usual denials had followed ; but 
 a few days later the news was officially confirmed by 
 one of the medical journals. It is not often nowadays, 
 that a newspaper gets a piece of exclusive informa- 
 tion so sensational that it flutters the stock markets 
 of two hemispheres. 
 
 My old friend winced. "I was away when it 
 came in," he said. 
 
 " Shouldn't you have taken it ? " 
 
 " I won't say that ; I didn't know then what I 
 know now." 
 
 295
 
 A Legal Practitioner 
 
 " They had to decide at once," he went on. " It 
 was such a big job that they called in the proprietor ; 
 and as he said 'Yes,' and I wasn't there, that 
 settled it." 
 
 "As you have refused, over and over, again to tell 
 me who gets the newspapers their 'Wills and 
 Bequests,' I suppose you won't tell me who sent this 
 news in," said I, by way of a mild joke. 
 
 " It's a damned shame ! " he burst out. " You 
 can't think what pains they took to guard the secret. 
 They were trying to keep it from the Old Lady, in 
 the hope that she'd die first. Now, there's a pretty 
 kettle of fish. And it's weakened our position in 
 the negotiations ; everybody knows that the Govern- 
 ment mayn't last a month." 
 
 My friend was evidently much upset that his 
 venerable organ should have done all this mischief. 
 He lapsed into a frowning silence, and I went on 
 with my dinner. 
 
 Presently he looked up with a jerk. "Wasn't 
 that ward of yours named Hartrigg ? " he asked. 
 
 " Yes ; whatever made you think of him ? " 
 
 At any time the sudden mention of the name 
 would have disconcerted me; but to hear it just 
 then was particularly irritating. Charles Hartrigg 
 had been much in my thoughts that day, and I had 
 had more than enough of him. By the morning's 
 post I had received a letter from South America, tell- 
 ing me that the uncle to whom my testator had lent 
 
 296
 
 The Calamity of Charles Hartrigg 
 
 the thousand pounds was dead, and that there 
 seemed a likelihood that all his debts would be paid. 
 
 I dare say I spoke to my friend rather sharply ; 
 but he met my question with so much confusion that, 
 as soon as he had gone, I began to search my 
 memory for the explanation. 
 
 This was, alas ! only too easy to find. One had 
 only to recall the talk, which had gone before, to have 
 the truth staring one in the face. My dinner came 
 to an abrupt end, and for the next few hours I was 
 striding about London with my brain in a ferment. 
 I was so dog-tired when I went to bed that exhaus- 
 tion and a dose of bromide put me to sleep ; but that 
 night, and for several nights to come, my dreams 
 were full of the attics in Clifford's Inn and the worn 
 wreck who lay hidden there. 
 
 297
 
 CORRESPONDENCE with my South American agent 
 respecting the old debt, extended over a period of 
 more than a year. When things had advanced so 
 far as to satisfy me that payment was only a matter 
 of time, I had felt it my duty to make a report to 
 my beneficiary, and with my letter I had sent him a 
 copy of two or three of my agent's communications. 
 These he sent back with a niggling, unsteady scrawl, 
 very unlike his handwriting of other days, to the 
 effect that he would be glad to leave the matter to 
 my unfettered discretion. 
 
 I put his letter among my records of the adminis- 
 tration, and was about to tear up the enclosures and 
 throw them into the waste-paper basket, when a paper 
 fluttered out of them, and settled before me, inviting 
 perusal. A somewhat moving document I found it. 
 It's nature was apparent at a glance, and the same 
 glance made me master of its contents. It was a 
 broker's bought-note, evidencing the fact that Charles 
 Hartrigg, Esquire, had purchased a sum of fifty thou- 
 sand pounds India Threes. 
 
 "Fifteen hundred a year," I thought, as I sat 
 with my eyes glued upon the scrap of paper. 
 
 298
 
 The Calamity of Charles Hartrigg 
 
 By what means had the purchase-money been got 
 together? How many secrets had the boy sold to 
 one and another, and how often had he made his 
 coup on the Stock Exchange, before that vast hoard 
 had been accumulated ? And perhaps he had made 
 other investments ! This thought landed one in such 
 a world of wonder and surmise that I sprang to my 
 feet, and, rolling the note into a ball, I flung it into 
 the fire. I knew that it was of no value; and, 
 acting on the impulse of the moment, I got rid of 
 it by the quickest means at my disposal. 
 
 At last my agent reported that the uncle's estate 
 was ready for division, and that upon receipt of a 
 power of attorney from myself and " the heir," as he 
 called him, the thousand pounds and certain interest 
 thereon would be paid over. I sent an engrossment 
 of the power to Charles Hartrigg for execution by 
 him, and I gave him full instructions as to the 
 formalities to be observed. On the following morning 
 my stolid, unemotional Peacock came in to me with 
 a scared face, and announced in a voice, which he 
 was hardly able to control, that " Mr. Charles " was 
 in the waiting-room. 
 
 At first, I was too astonished to speak ; then there 
 came over me such a sense of terror and repulsion, 
 that I doubted for a moment whether I could bear 
 the sight of him. 
 
 "What does he look like?" I whispered, in a 
 voice as shaky as Peacock's own. 
 
 299
 
 A Legal Practitioner 
 
 "A deal worse than his father did," was the 
 answer. 
 
 " I suppose I must see him ? " I groaned. " Show 
 him in ? " 
 
 How I dreaded his entrance as I sat watching 
 the door, and vowing to myself that I would not take 
 his hand, and yet doubting whether, after all, I should 
 be able to stand to my resolution ! 
 
 But I was not put to the test; for, as always 
 happens in real life, nothing fell out as one had 
 anticipated. A movement outside brought me to my 
 feet, and then the door swung wide open, and Charles 
 Hartrigg came in clinging to Peacock's arm. There 
 was no question of shaking hands; I had only to 
 stand by, and strive to show no trace of the emotion 
 that almost overpowered me. Slow and faltering was 
 the visitor's progress towards my table ; and when he 
 had been conducted to the client's chair the chair in 
 which his father had sat some nine years before he 
 sank into it like a decrepit man of eighty. 
 
 " I am very ill," he panted, wiping his forehead ; 
 " but this is quite exceptional." 
 
 " You were a deal better when you came," said 
 Peacock, encouragingly. 
 
 I dismissed my henchman by a nod. I was in 
 my own chair by this time, and I sat waiting for my 
 visitor to recover himself. 
 
 " I wouldn't have troubled you," he began, as he 
 fumbled about in a breast pocket, and at length 
 
 300
 
 The Calamity of Charles Hartrigg 
 
 produced my foolscap envelope and a frayed mass of 
 small documents ; " but I gathered that you wanted 
 something done with this, and I didn't feel equal to 
 attending to it without your help." 
 
 When I had taken the envelope from out his 
 hand, and I watched his fingers playing aimlessly 
 among the accumulated rubbish left behind, I under- 
 stood how the broker's note had come into my 
 possession. 
 
 I disengaged the engrossment from the letter which 
 had covered it, and muttering something about making 
 the necessary arrangements, I was thankful to escape 
 from the room and get into the open air. When the 
 shock of his appearance had worn off a little, I routed 
 out my usual notary and took him across with me. 
 Charles Hartrigg was better by this time, and at 
 length the business was disposed of. That power of 
 attorney is now in my safe. Of the signatures of the 
 two grantors, I think mine is the shakier. I well 
 remember Peacock's astonishment as his eye fell on 
 it, when he sat down to write his name as the second 
 witness. 
 
 " It's an odd thing, this debt being paid after all," 
 I remarked, as I put the power into an envelope, when 
 all the formalities had been completed, and Peacock 
 and the notary and the commissioner for oaths had 
 left the room. The transaction of the common-form 
 business, and the movement and small bustle con- 
 nected with it had quieted my nerves, and the feeling 
 
 301
 
 A Legal Practitioner 
 
 of sheer physical repulsion had passed off. "Your 
 father looked upon it as a bad debt." 
 
 " Do you remember my father coming here ? " he 
 asked. 
 
 "Yes, I remember him." With the son sitting 
 within a few feet of me, I was not likely to forget the 
 father's visit. 
 
 "It was only a week or two before he died. It 
 was his heart that was wrong. It's the nerves with 
 me." 
 
 "You're under treatment, I suppose?" I was 
 obliged to say something, and this was all that I 
 could think of. 
 
 " Oh yes ; my laundress fetched a man in. I was 
 very bad then. He's been patching me up a good 
 bit lately." 
 
 I wondered whether the doctor was responsible 
 for the improvement in his patient's dress. There 
 was nothing noticeably shabby or untidy about it 
 that morning. 
 
 I made no attempt to keep up the conversation. 
 Our business was over, and I wanted him to be gone. 
 He, however, seemed to be in no hurry. He had sunk 
 into a reverie, and was idly tapping the fingers of one 
 hand on the arm of his chair. I made a pretence of 
 arranging the papers on my table, but one cannot 
 fiddle about in that way for ever, and at length I got 
 up and crossed the room to lock up my safe. The 
 fingers were still beating up and down; and as I 
 
 302
 
 The Calamity of Charles Hartrigg 
 
 passed him on my way back to the table, I saw his 
 face twitch violently. Things were growing unbearable. 
 
 "Are those cousins of yours still living?" I 
 inquired in desperation. 
 
 He turned to me with a jerk. " Eh ! what ? Are 
 they living? I think so. I'm really not sure. I 
 forget things so." 
 
 For a minute or two he sat silent and bewildered, 
 searching his memory for something which persisted 
 in eluding him. 
 
 " I'm fit for nothing," he said despairingly. " I'm 
 going to Australia in a sailing-ship. I think I 
 shall settle there. I want to make a fresh start 
 altogether." 
 
 I could think of no answer ; I could only wonder 
 whether he would live to reach his destination. After 
 another pause, he took up his hat and began to 
 smooth it nervously. 
 
 "It makes one remember old times to be here 
 again," he began. "Are you and yours quite well 
 all quite well?" There was no mistaking the 
 meaning in his tone. 
 
 " I think everybody's in the best of healthyes, 
 everybody." 
 
 My answer was conventional in word and manner, 
 but his veiled reference to Elsie had touched me a 
 little. Standing out against a background of shadow 
 and mystery, there were two things, as to which I 
 had never felt a doubt he had loved her with an 
 
 303
 
 A Legal Practitioner 
 
 honest, boyish love, and because of her, there had 
 been a hard struggle when he reached the parting of 
 the ways. And since the shadows had closed over 
 him, Time had done much to heal the mischief he 
 had wrought with regard to her. She was happy 
 now ; the young life had regained its buoyancy, and 
 there was a promise of wedding bells in the air. 
 
 These were the reflections that passed through 
 my mind, as I sat longing for him to make a move, 
 and I was conscious that a feeling akin to pity had 
 followed in their train. Long afterwards, a new 
 light flashed upon me perhaps, after all, he had 
 acknowledged some limitations in the exercise of his 
 accursed gift ; perhaps he had spared me and mine. 
 I could not doubt that he had asked his question in 
 good faith. 
 
 At last he rose wearily to his feet. 
 
 " You had better take your letter," I said, 
 pointing to yesterday's envelope, /which still lay on 
 the table. 
 
 He lurched a little as he turned to pick it up, 
 and with one hand he clung to the chair to steady 
 himself. I hastened to his side, but seeing that he 
 wished for no help, I moved off, so as not to appear 
 to be watching him, and I kept my eyes averted 
 until I heard the envelope rustle into his pocket. 
 On his way to the door he gave another lurch, and 
 this time I caught hold of his arm. 
 
 "I'm afraid this is my own fault," he said, 
 304
 
 The Calamity of Charles Hartrigg 
 
 apologetically ; " I believe I forgot to have any 
 breakfast." 
 
 " You must have some soup ; it's just my lunch- 
 time. We'll take a cab." 
 
 I spoke on the impulse of the moment ; to stand 
 by and do nothing with a fellow creature in that 
 state seemed out of the question. I groaned in spirit 
 the moment after I had made my offer, but there 
 was no loophole of escape ; and presently we were 
 seated at my usual table in the grill-room of the 
 Holborn, and Mr. King was offering me his customary 
 welcome. I have been on a friendly footing with the 
 managers and head waiters of two or three restau- 
 rants in my time ; and let no man laugh, who dines 
 at his family mahogany, if I say that the " welcome 
 at an inn " has never seemed a little thing to me. 
 
 Our lunch proceeded in silence. I was in a state 
 of veiled nervous irritation, and though my guest 
 made a feeble attack upon his soup, he seemed 
 hardly able to lift the spoon to his lips. 
 
 "Do you see that woman the one with the 
 foreigner ? " 
 
 The quick, shrill whisper took me so completely 
 by surprise, that I looked point-blank in the direction 
 of his gaze. But I could see nothing more startling 
 than an elderly American couple typical New 
 Englanders, both of them having a real good time 
 at a table close at hand. 
 
 "Not those old fools beyond them, to the left." 
 305 x
 
 A Legal Practitioner 
 
 The intense irritation in his voice jarred my 
 nerves afresh, but I took a more diplomatic survey 
 this time. I saw the pair he meant ; a dark, foreign- 
 looking man with elaborately curled hair and many 
 rings, and a Juno of a woman, nearly thirty, perhaps, 
 but wearing a sort of baby freshness in her peach- 
 bloom complexion and deep, dewy eyes. 
 
 I was beginning to think that my companion was 
 mad. He had pushed his plate from him and was 
 stretching forward, twisting a tablespoon between 
 his two hands. At this moment the foreign woman 
 chanced to look in our direction. A round-eyed 
 wonder came into her face as she caught sight of 
 the wild stare bent upon her; then, as her eyes 
 rested full upon him, the heavy lids drooped a little, 
 and a look of intense mental concentration altered 
 her whole aspect. But, in a flash, all sign of intel- 
 lectual power had vanished ; the lilies and roses were 
 holding the field again, and the baby eyes were 
 dwelling upon Charles Hartrigg with a look of 
 measureless contempt. The next moment she was 
 dimpling into a smile as she held out a many- 
 bangled wrist, as a hint to her companion that her 
 glove wanted buttoning. 
 " They're going ! " 
 
 His excitement was so uncontrollable, and his 
 tone so full of consternation, that I laid a restraining 
 hand upon his arm. People were beginning to look 
 at us. 
 
 306
 
 The Calamity of Charles Hartrigg 
 
 "I can't stop," he went on, in the same high 
 whisper, as he watched the preparations for departure; 
 and, but for my tightening grasp upon his arm, he 
 would have risen to his feet. 
 
 " It will kill you," I said meaningly. 
 
 "She's escaped me twice," he panted, as he 
 struggled to get free. " Don't you understand ? 
 She's a political agent.'* 
 
 By this time the pair had left their table and 
 were moving to the door. 
 
 I could hold him no longer, but as he turned to 
 follow them, I made a snatch at him. 
 
 " For God's sake, take your hat ! " I hissed into 
 his ear. " You're making an exhibition of both 
 of us." 
 
 I thrust his hat into his hands, and without putting 
 it on his head he started off with a rapid zigzag 
 motion, more like that of a machine than a human 
 being. Before he had reached the door through 
 which his quarry had disappeared, he was on the 
 run ; a horrible paralytic scramble such as my eyes 
 had never seen. 
 
 I comforted myself with the reflection that the 
 order of his going was no concern of mine ; and as 
 soon as he had disappeared I sank back in my chair 
 with a sense of relief too deep for words. I had seen 
 the heads on both sides of his passage, turn round to 
 stare at the scrambling figure with the mad eyes, and 
 then dip forward to exchange comments j but now 
 
 307
 
 A Legal Practitioner 
 
 that I was free of him, I cared nothing for the sensa- 
 tion which he had made. I was not a whit disconcerted 
 when I heard the old lady from New England shrill 
 forth something in an unknown tongue ; and I was 
 even mildly amused when, after an interval of a 
 minute or two, Uncle Hiram, whose mind seemed to 
 work slowly, looked up from a plate of sweet omelette 
 and baked potato, and grunted out an expression of 
 his entire concurrence. 
 
 When, later on, I cleared up my table for the 
 day, my sense of satisfaction and relief was a little 
 dashed by the discovery that Charles Hartrigg had 
 pocketed the envelope containing the power of attorney, 
 instead of the envelope containing my yesterday's 
 letter. But I was in a hurry to keep a dinner en- 
 gagement ; so I contented myself for the time being 
 by anathematizing my own folly in having permitted 
 the mistake, and I let the question of recovering the 
 power slide until the morrow. 
 
 308
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 I DINED that evening at Clothworkers* Hall. I drank 
 out of old Sam Pepys' loving-cup, and heard an ex- 
 law-officer respond in glib phrases to the toast of 
 " Our Glorious Constitution in Church and State." 
 The night was so young and so lovely when I turned 
 out into Mincing Lane that I decided to stroll to the 
 Temple and beat up the quarters of a certain old 
 crony of mine in Pump Court. The season was mid- 
 summer, and the City lay hushed and empty under 
 a grand full moon. 
 
 My thoughts turned to the events of the day as I 
 strolled along, smoking the excellent cigar which 
 had been given to mo in the vestibule, and I made a 
 mental note to write next morning and ask for the 
 return of the missing document. When, however, I 
 remembered the condition in which Charles Hartrigg 
 had left the Holborn, I wondered whether my letter 
 would be attended to, and again I cursed my own 
 negligence. I had got as far as Fleet Street by this 
 time, and the fact that I was within a stone's-throw 
 of those awful attics suddenly occurred to me. " You're 
 afraid," said an inward monitor, as the possibility of 
 
 309
 
 A Legal Practitioner 
 
 fetching away the document, then and there, presented 
 itself. But I was valorous with a good dinner and 
 two or three glasses of sound port, and I trod my 
 fears underfoot : possibly I had had a glass of cham- 
 pagne as well. I was conscious of a sort of curiosity 
 to see the courts of Clifford's Inn under that glorious 
 moon, and perhaps I had a sneaking expectation of 
 finding the outer door of the chambers shut. The 
 college maxim, that a sported oak is sacred, meets 
 with an even more rigid observance among the dwellers 
 in our Inns of Court and Chancery. 
 
 I entered Clifford's Inn in company with some star 
 of the music-halls. She and her dresser went up the 
 passage in front of me, and we joined forces at the 
 lodge. To this lady, who was evidently a resident in 
 the Inn, the porter expressed a deferential hope that 
 she had gone well, and she assured him that she had 
 gone " immense perfectly immense : a curtain after 
 every song." I slipped in without challenge. It 
 tickled me to think that the man was taking me for 
 the singing woman's escort. 
 
 The tiny inner court upon which Clifford's Inn 
 Passage opens, was nearly all in shadow, and very 
 black were the trees in the garden of the court beyond, 
 as I saw them through the tunnel that runs alongside 
 the hall. I thought of my early days in the law when, 
 on rare occasions, I had been sent down to keep guard 
 on some summons, amid the rough-and-tumble of old 
 Judges' Chambers, just beyond those trees. No vestige 
 
 310
 
 The Calamity of Charles Hartrigg 
 
 remains of the "Beargarden" of my young days, 
 except the flagged terrace on which it used to front ; 
 and when I had passed the hall, the massive bulk of 
 the Eecord Office and its square tower stood full in 
 view, with the moon riding in the clear skies behind. 
 Court and garden were flooded with moonlight. The 
 old roofs, with their dormer windows, were masses of 
 ink and silver ; and where, between the hall and the 
 garden, the moonlight lay sleeping on the pavement, 
 the stone cubes that marked the passage-ways gleamed 
 snow-white against the moss-grown cobbles through 
 which they ran. When I scanned the few lighted 
 windows, I observed, with a sense of relief, that the 
 garrets to which I was bound were all in darkness. 
 I had forgotten the red-baize curtains. 
 
 The lights on the winding stair were very dim ; but 
 thanks to the moon, I was able to mount it without 
 stumbling. Charles Hartrigg's "oak" was not sported. 
 I stood upon the landing, staring at the inner door, 
 and fighting against a strong temptation to turn tail. 
 But bolder counsels prevailed, and I plied the knocker. 
 Thrice I plied it without result. Then, inspired by a 
 sudden determination to see the thing through, come 
 what might, I turned the handle. 
 
 There was no light in the lobby, but I could see 
 the door of the sitting-room straight ahead. I tapped 
 at it two or three times, and then entered. Though 
 the night was hot and] airless, the atmosphere of the 
 place was less foul than it had been that October
 
 A Legal Practitioner 
 
 afternoon, some four years earlier. The only light 
 came from a lowered gas-jet over the mantelpiece. 
 
 As soon as I was standing in the dead silence, my 
 nerves began to play me false, and I cast a look over 
 my left shoulder, to make sure that my line of retreat 
 to the landing was still open. At this moment the 
 door leading to the bedroom creaked on its hinges, 
 and the lock rattled. I felt my hair rise as I turned, 
 quick as lightning, to face the direction of the sound. 
 Even in the faint light, a glance satisfied me that the 
 door had been left ajar, and that a light air had swung 
 it to. It was moving gently inwards as I looked at it ; 
 and wrathful at having trembled at such a shadow, 
 I stepped forward and drummed upon it with two 
 fingers. Notwithstanding my sudden valour, I was 
 half conscious of a reluctance to make more noise 
 than was absolutely necessary. I did not repeat the 
 drumming; steeling myself to behold what I felt 
 sure lay on the other side, I pushed the door open. 
 
 My anticipation was justified this time ; but the 
 reality fell short of my fears. The latticed window 
 stood wide open, and through it the moonlight was 
 flooding the upper part of the figure stretched upon 
 the bed. He was rigid as death, but the eyes were 
 closed and the haggard, bearded face was free from 
 distortion. I found myself gazing upon Charles 
 Hartrigg with unshrinking eyes as he lay there in 
 his shirt sleeves, his forehead and the hollows of his 
 cheeks gleaming like ivory ; for the sight before me 
 
 312
 
 The Calamity of Charles Hartrigg 
 
 was as nothing compared with the nightmare picture, 
 that had so often made me sweat with terror during 
 the small hours. The details of that picture were all 
 visible to my inward eye ; and standing in the presence 
 of the reality, I made comparison between the two. 
 So calmly could I scan the room, and the prospect on 
 which the window opened, that I noted how near 
 the Record Office was, and how crystalline the stone- 
 work looked in that delicious moonlit air. I noted, 
 too, the discarded coat and a pair of kicked-off shoes. 
 Hanging on the bed-head, within a foot or two of the 
 set face, every detail of the coat was visible, and 
 peeping out of the breast pocket was the thing which 
 I had come for. 
 
 After a moment's hesitation, I slipped across the 
 room and took possession of it. The possibility of 
 Charles Hartrigg missing it was too remote to be 
 worth considering, and the temptation to get back 
 my own and have done with him was irresistible. 
 
 In stretching forward to twitch out the envelope, 
 I got a glimpse of that part of the bedstead which lay 
 in shadow. I saw that the crossed feet were shoeless, 
 and that near them a cat was curled up asleep. Re- 
 membering the kitten of my former visit, I peered 
 forward to get a better view of the black ball, and as 
 I did so I heard the body stir ! The rustle on the 
 counterpane was faint, but unmistakable. In a flash 
 I was back upon the threshold, but before leaving the 
 place for ever I turned to take a last look at the bed. 
 
 313
 
 A Legal Practitioner 
 
 I was disposed to think, as I scanned what lay 
 there, that my ears had played me false, for the 
 figure was as motionless as a graven image upon an 
 altar tomb. But the next instant a spasm shot across 
 the features, and before I could move hand or foot, 
 the whole body was in a state of violent convulsion. 
 To shut my eyes and cling to the doorway for support 
 was all that I could do. But to blot that contorted 
 figure out of sight was not of much avail, so long as 
 one's ears performed their office. 
 
 At last the convulsion raged no longer. The bed- 
 springs ceased their jarring; but before one could 
 draw a breath of relief, the silence was rent by a 
 burst of sound that seemed to make the old place 
 quiver. It was like the launching of a rocket, only 
 its duration was a mere flash. Following upon this 
 roar so closely, as to seem to grow out of it, rose the 
 angry swearing of a cat. Then the animal jumped 
 down, and all was still. 
 
 When I ventured to open my eyes, my head was 
 half-turned from the direction of the bedstead, and 
 I saw nothing but the floor to the right of the window, 
 and the cat shaking its head as if after a blow. I 
 did not dare to look towards the bed ; but little by 
 little I enlarged my field of vision, until it took in 
 the open window and the pinnacled tower beyond. I 
 noticed that both halves of the lattice were quivering. 
 
 The tranquillity of the prospect outside steadied 
 my nerves somewhat, and at length I turned towards 
 
 3H
 
 The Calamity of Charles Hartrigg 
 
 the bedstead to learn the worst. All that I saw there 
 was a disturbed and furrowed counterpane and two 
 disordered pillows. The body was no longer visible. 
 Hardly knowing what I did, I moved forward ; my 
 eyes glued upon the spot where I had seen Charles 
 Hartrigg lying. But the fact that he was no longer 
 there was too manifest for doubt. I stood in the 
 middle of the room, my eyeB bent on the floor, my 
 arms hanging loosely at my sides, and my mind for 
 the time being, in a state of collapse. I saw the cat 
 come up to me, and I heard him purr as he bared his 
 white teeth and rubbed himself against my legs. 
 Suddenly, when he reared himself and sought to 
 approach my hand, my stupor and a sense of nausea 
 that had been growing on me ever since my entry 
 into these accursed rooms, gave place to a thrill of 
 terror, that was nothing less than hysteria. 
 
 " How do I know that you are not a familiar?" 
 I cried aloud, as I shook myself free and menaced 
 the cat with my foot. 
 
 Then I turned and fled. I know that force of 
 habit led me to slam the "oak" behind me, but 
 I remember nothing more of my passage into the 
 open air. When I came to something approaching 
 my right mind, I was on hands and knees upon the 
 grass-grown cobble-stones of that part of the court 
 which juts off southwards, and I was in the throes of 
 violent sickness. 
 
 315
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 SOME four or five hours later I was tossing on my 
 bed in an agony of fear and brain-irritation, when I 
 heard an urgent knocking at my outer door. I felt 
 no doubt as to what the summons meant. 
 
 I can hardly bear to recall the agonies which I 
 had suffered during those hours. I felt no doubt 
 that the man was dead, and I was glad that he was 
 gone. When, where, and how he would be found, 
 and what would be the inquiries afterwards, were the 
 questions that tortured me. My mental disturbance 
 was such that, when at length I managed to shake 
 my mind free of these problems, a trumpery doubt 
 whether, under the circumstances, I ought to send 
 the power to South America seized upon me, and 
 worried me into a new fever of anxiety. When I 
 passed from this topic, and began for the hundredth 
 time to speculate upon the possibilities attending the 
 discovery of Charles Hartrigg's body, coatless and 
 shoeless, I was almost beside myself. 
 
 The knocking scared me for a moment; but a 
 certain sense of relief followed close upon it. It 
 could only mean one thing the body had been 
 
 316
 
 The Calamity of Charles Hartrigg 
 
 found. I felt glad that I was face to face with the 
 worst so soon. 
 
 I rose and put on a dressing-gown and slippers. 
 The knocking was repeated once or twice during this 
 process ; but I did not let it hurry me. I felt that I 
 must meet the crisis with as much outward calmness 
 as I could summon up. 
 
 Before opening the door, I took advantage of a 
 certain spy-hole which commands the landing. My 
 visitors were three in number. The knocking party 
 was the head porter. His companions were a police- 
 man and a little bunch of an old woman. 
 
 " What is it ? " I shouted through the letter-slit. 
 
 " Bad news, sir," was the policeman's answer. 
 
 I opened the door so far as the chain would permit. 
 
 " What news ? " I asked, taking care not to show 
 myself. 
 
 " A gentleman's body has been found " began 
 
 the head-porter. 
 
 " It's Mr. 'Artrigg's," broke in the old woman. 
 
 "Where? " I demanded, in as firm a tone as I 
 could command. 
 
 " Close under Waterloo Bridge, sir." The police- 
 man was speaking now. "It was found an hour 
 ago. Life had been extinct some time." 
 
 This, then, was the Fates' answer to my terrors. 
 I felt a new man as I reviewed the position in the 
 light of the good news. But an afterthought struck 
 me in the midst of my jubilation. 
 
 317
 
 A Legal Practitioner 
 
 "Any suspicion of foul play ? " I asked. 
 
 " Lord, no, sir ! It's sooicide." 
 
 I could open the door now and usher the party 
 into my breakfast-room with a proper, professional 
 demeanour shocked, but unruffled. The gardens 
 looked fresh and beautiful in the pearly light of the 
 early morning. Two rooks were stalking about the 
 tennis-lawn just under my windows. 
 
 " Tell me all about it," said I, to the policeman 
 " Let him tell his story ! " I added to the little 
 woman, who was craning forward in her eagerness 
 to forestall him. 
 
 The body had been found by the Thames police 
 on the mud of the Surrey side, just east of Waterloo 
 Bridge. The ebb tide had left it half exposed. A 
 watch, and a purse containing certain monies had 
 been found upon it. In the purse was a paper giving 
 a name with an address in Clifford's Inn. Inquiries 
 of the night-porter there, had led the authorities to 
 the good lady, whom I saw before me. She had 
 referred them to my chambers, and had insisted 
 on coming too. 
 
 "From what she says, it's plain the gentleman 
 wasn't responsible for his actions," the policeman 
 wound up. " Would you believe it, sir, he was out- 
 of-doors without his coat or his boots on ? " 
 
 " You'd think nothing of that, if you knew him as 
 well as I do," snapped out the good lady. 
 
 Small of stature, bent almost double with age
 
 The Calamity of Charles Hartrigg 
 
 and rheumatism, and clad in garments that sug- 
 gested a marine store, she was one of the unloveliest 
 old women I had ever seen. She was almost repul- 
 sive as she sat, with two watery little eyes fixed on 
 me, while her jaw munched up and down, and her 
 infamous shoes dangled some inches above the carpet. 
 
 " What are you ? " I asked. 
 
 " I'm his 'ousekeeper." 
 
 I managed to suppress a shudder. I knew that 
 every Inn laundress called herself by the loftier title ; 
 but to associate that dreadful little woman with any 
 kind of domestic service was enough to make a man's 
 gorge rise. 
 
 " He said as if anything was to 'appen to him, I 
 was to go at once to the gentleman wrote on this." 
 
 As she spoke, she handed me a scrap of paper. 
 It bore my name and address in Charles Hartrigg's 
 handwriting. 
 
 " I was his guardian under his father's will," I 
 explained to a constable ; " but that was years ago, 
 and I've seen next to nothing of him since." 
 
 "He never saw nobody," interposed the house- 
 keeper. 
 
 " Of course, there must be an inquest," I went on. 
 " But it seems to me that this good lady, and his 
 medical attendant, and the people of the inn can 
 give all the necessary evidence. When will the 
 inquest be ? " 
 
 About Toosday, the policeman thought. It had 
 319
 
 A Legal Practitioner 
 
 occurred to my mind that unless the authorities 
 learned from me that I had recently been in com- 
 munication with the deceased, those communications 
 need not come to light, and therefore the sooner I 
 put myself at a distance from all official inquirers, 
 the better. 
 
 " This is Saturday," I remarked ; " I want to go 
 to Sandwich to-day to play golf. Do you think I 
 need be back before Tuesday morning ? " 
 
 The policeman thought not After I had toyed 
 significantly with certain silver moneys, that chanced 
 to be on the mantelpiece, he felt no doubt on the 
 subject. Really, it came to this what could I speak 
 to ? Such was his ultimate conclusion. 
 
 " Then I'll go," said I. " I'll give you my address 
 at Sandwich, and I'll undertake to be present at the 
 inquest." 
 
 The risk of the night-porter recognizing me was a 
 trifle. I felt certain that he had taken no notice, 
 when I passed him in the train of the music-hall 
 lady; and on going out, I had purposely kept my 
 pallid countenance in the shadow. 
 
 The little laundress had sat silent during these 
 deliberations. I had heard her sniffing more than 
 once, and when I turned to her, I saw big tears trick- 
 ling down her cheeks. 
 
 " Cheer up, mother ! " said the policeman. " All 
 the crying" in the world won't bring the gentleman 
 back again." 
 
 320
 
 The Calamity of Charles Hartrigg 
 
 The withered crone resented the suggestion that 
 she was mourning for her dead master. 
 
 "'Tain't 'im," she said bridling; "it's pore 
 Toby." 
 
 "Who's he? "I asked. 
 
 The particulars furnished were long and involved, 
 and the recital was attended by much sniffing. It 
 appeared that Toby was a black cat such a beauty. 
 She had had him as a tiny baby, when she did for 
 the gentleman before Mr. Hartrigg. She had kept 
 him at the chambers because at her own place there 
 was a savage beast of a dog. She had had a lot of 
 trouble in her time. The children was all dead and 
 gone. So was all the ole friends. And as for her 
 husband, he had got that funny in his head, it was 
 almost a blessing in disguise when he made away 
 with himself; though, of course, it wasn't a nice 
 thing to happen. And Mr. Hartrigg wasn't much 
 better. He was that lazy, you couldn't get in to 
 make his bed for days and days together. And yet, 
 the doctor said, it was want of sleep as made him 
 so queer. In all these circumstances, who could 
 expect her to shed tears because the gentleman had 
 chose to go and make away with himself? Parting 
 with pore Toby was quite another matter. 
 
 " Why not find another place and get leave to 
 keep him there ? " 
 
 This suggestion came from the head porter. It 
 sounded feasible enough, but it turned out to be 
 
 321 Y
 
 A Legal Practitioner 
 
 impracticable. Toby's mistress was not so young as 
 she had been, and she had made up her mind to go 
 into the House. 
 
 " And I can't take 'im there," she wailed. " And 
 when I've left the Inn, 'ell be crying on the staircase, 
 and picking up what 'e can get. And that'll spoil 'is 
 coat, and 'is pretty years'll get to look as if they was 
 blackleaded. And Vll get so thin. And any one'll 
 be able to ill-use 'im ; for when they coaxes 'im, 'e'll 
 run up, 'oping it's something to eat." 
 
 The old woman's appearance, as she sat sobbing 
 and sniffing over this dismal prospect, was simply 
 revolting, but there was genuine pathos in her grief. 
 It moved all her three hearers. 
 
 " If you'll bring him here," said I, " I'll take 
 charge of him, and see that he has a good time." 
 Perhaps I thought that some measure of atonement 
 was due to " pore Toby." 
 
 Tuesday came round in due course. From my 
 chair in the coroner's court, I scanned the persons 
 assembled. The jury were there, and so were the 
 witnesses. Among these was the night-porter. I 
 was relieved to find that he looked at me without 
 any sign of recognition. The rest of the audience 
 was made up of two or three constables and a sprink- 
 ling of spectators. While we waited for the coroner, 
 his officer, who turned out to be an old legal acquaint- 
 ance of mine, beguiled the interval with social chat. 
 
 322
 
 The Calamity of Charles Hartrigg 
 
 The case was quite a simple one, he told me ; perhaps 
 suicide, perhaps accidental death. At last, the great 
 man bustled in, and close behind him came a bearded 
 gentleman with elaborate curled hair, and a lovely 
 lady with a bright complexion and innocent blue 
 eyes. 
 
 "Foreigners studying our institutions. They 
 hunted me up yesterday," whispered the officer, as he 
 left me to attend upon his master. 
 
 That lady had been much in my thoughts since 
 Charles Hartrigg's tragic end. Fresh air and freedom 
 from anxiety had done much for me during the last 
 three days. Kichard was himself again by now ; but 
 at Sandwich, and ever since my return on Monday 
 night, I had wondered, over and over again, whether 
 the dead man's pursuit of the woman, who had thrown 
 him into such a state of excitement at the Holborn, 
 had had anything to do with his death. This un- 
 expected appearance of the two foreigners was a 
 suspicious circumstance, but it was some satisfaction 
 to know that they had not come as witnesses. A 
 public disclosure of that mad episode of last Friday 
 would drag me out into the open. 
 
 I cast a discreet glance to where the lady and her 
 companion were standing. My eye met hers, and a 
 faint smile of unmistakable amusement showed itself 
 upon her face. I began to feel very uncomfortable. 
 
 Presently the pair came forward, escorted by a 
 constable. I got up to allow the distinguished visitors 
 
 323
 
 A Legal Practitioner 
 
 to pass to two vacant chairs a little way beyond my 
 own. The man went by with a florid obeisance. Just 
 before the lady reached me, she dropped a glove. As 
 I restored it to her, she spoke to me in a whisper that 
 breathed a slight foreign accent. 
 
 " Monsieur's testimony will be so very interesting," 
 said she, under cover of a bow and a dazzling smile. 
 
 I resumed my seat, with cold shivers running 
 down my back. 
 
 But, as the inquiry ran its course, my peace of mind 
 gradually came back; the proceedings went on so 
 swiftly, and in such a business-like way. The body 
 was viewed and identified ; the finding of it and the 
 cause of the death were duly proved, and the doctor, 
 the laundress, and two of the inn porters gave 
 evidence. Then the coroner leant back, and cleared 
 his throat preparatory to summing up. 
 
 I pricked up my ears when, at this moment, I 
 saw one of the jurors whisper something to his 
 neighbour. 
 
 " Why ain't it satisfactory ? " inquired the other. 
 
 "Clifford ought to 'ave come forward and ex- 
 plained," grumbled the whisperer. "What business 
 had he to let the man leave his inn 'alf-dressed 'arf- 
 boozed too, if all was known ? He ought to 'ave his 
 licence endorsed." 
 
 " Live and let live, mate ! Why harry the man 
 what shall we get out of it ? " 
 
 The coroner's summing up did not occupy three 
 3 2 4
 
 The Calamity of Charles Hartrigg 
 
 minutes. The jury, he said, were intelligent men, 
 and had followed the evidence. The facts of the case 
 were so-and-so. There was no suspicion of violence. 
 The jury had been told of the deceased's state of 
 mind, and his strange secluded way of life. This, 
 that, or the other verdict was open to them and so 
 forth. In the course of another two minutes the 
 verdict was returned " Accidental Death ! " 
 
 I hurried out in the wake of the policeman, who 
 had knocked me up to communicate, what he called, 
 bad news. A brief conference on the stairs enabled 
 me to discharge a certain moral obligation, which had 
 been contracted in Gray's Inn three days before. 
 When I went back for my hat I found that the court 
 was empty, except for the foreign lady and her 
 cavalier. She at once made up to me, leaving him 
 in the background. 
 
 " I congratulate Monsieur on his good looks," she 
 said sweetly ; " Monsieur was not so well on Friday 
 night." 
 
 " May I be permitted to take a chair ? " I inquired. 
 
 Monsieur was not feeling very well at that moment. 
 His legs were threatening to refuse him proper support. 
 
 " It is so sad to lose a friend," she resumed, as 
 soon as we were both seated. 
 
 " Madame' s sympathy would go far to make up for 
 any loss," I returned valiantly ; " but Mr. Hartrigg 
 was no friend of mine. Until last Friday I had not 
 spoken to him for nearly four years." 
 
 325
 
 A Legal Practitioner 
 
 Her eyes rested on me keenly. " But you knew 
 you knew what he was ? " she said. 
 
 " From the way in which Madame looked at him 
 in the restaurant I thought she knew him, quite well," 
 was my answer. 
 
 The foreign lady laughed contemptuously. " I 
 knew nothing until I saw him, but then of course 
 I knew ; and I understood very well that he wanted 
 to escort us home. And I knew he could not leave 
 his gross self at the restaurant and follow. How I 
 laughed as we journeyed to Battersea, with our dear 
 friend in another cab behind ! And I watched for 
 him to return to spy. Mon dieul for how many 
 hours I watched ! And how I laughed when I saw 
 that he was there ! " 
 
 " You saw him ? " I ejaculated. 
 
 " Assuredly ! And he knew it but too late ! 
 And then our poor Monsieur Mahomet was all anxiety 
 to get back to his mountain. It was for him to wish 
 that. But it was my wish, and my pleasure, that 
 the mountain should itself remove and come to him. 
 And my will was the str-r-ronger." 
 
 Madame rolled her " r " and laughed deliciously 
 over this recollection. 
 
 "Battersea!" I gasped; "but the body was 
 found quite close to this place." 
 
 " Of course ! It was in the river that the 
 mountain came to him. It was necessary that he 
 should meet it halfway. What need had one of that 
 
 326
 
 The Calamity of Charles Hartrigg 
 
 carrion in our appartement? And one might not 
 brave the conveniences what you English call the 
 proprieties." 
 
 " I think I begin to understand," said I. 
 
 "I was desolated when I found that Monsieur 
 had assisted at the denoument" she went on, in 
 tones of cooing sympathy ; " but one could not have 
 anticipated that. It was a great pleasure to see 
 Monsieur again, but it was so sad when he opened 
 his eyes to find that the poor mountain had vanished 
 all at once." 
 
 My faculties were still in a state of considerable 
 disorder, but I was sufficiently myself to chafe under 
 this elaborate mockery. It seemed to me so utterly 
 undeserved. I had to sit and take it, however ; for 
 no answer was vouchsafed to me. 
 
 " But I will detain Monsieur no longer," she re- 
 sumed ; and there was something in her tone which 
 assured me that she was conscious of my anger, and 
 was enjoying it. " He has been here already for so 
 long, to no advantage. He has not even been called 
 upon for his testimony and that would have been so 
 interesting ! " 
 
 She rose as she said this ; and we bowed to one 
 another, she radiant and I quite otherwise, before 
 she rejoined her companion near the door. I looked 
 straight down my nose as I walked out ; but just as 
 I was crossing the threshold, I heard a swift rustle, 
 and a light hand fell upon my arm. I turned to meet 
 
 32;
 
 A Legal Practitioner 
 
 the dimpling smile that I had learned to detest so 
 thoroughly. 
 
 " There is but one little thing more," she said 
 caressingly, " the black cat. He could do Monsieur 
 no injury. He is not what you call a witch. He is 
 nothing." 
 
 This was my last chance of emerging from the 
 conflict with any fragment of the honours of war. 
 Thanks to my good angel, I was ready to take 
 advantage of it. This was the reward of virtue. An 
 answer rose to my lips ; and, greatly daring, I ven- 
 tured to translate it into the beautiful language 
 of Gaul. 
 
 " A thousand thanks," I retorted, with a Parisian 
 bow. " But in that matter, it has been permitted 
 me to anticipate Madame's kind assurance Monsieur 
 Tobi was yesterday admitted into my household." 
 
 328
 
 THE REV. PATRICK ANGUS 
 
 " SOME one wants to see you, sir very important 
 business, he says." As Peacock made this announce- 
 ment, he handed me a card. 
 
 The document bore traces of antiquity and hard 
 service. It's general tone was brownish, and in the 
 neighbourhood of the edges the hue was more pro- 
 nounced and wore a high polish. The copper-plate 
 of the name was faint and worn, but it was just 
 legible. 
 
 " ' The Eev. Patrick Angus, B.A.,' " I read aloud. 
 " What does he look like ?" 
 
 Peacock's mouth puckered, and his eyes shifted to 
 the window, and rested upon the clock of Gray's Inn 
 chapel. 
 
 " He looks something like a minister," he answered 
 hesitatingly. " He says Mr. Maples on- Smith advised 
 him to see you." The emphasis which Peacock put 
 upon the " says " was not complimentary to the Rev. 
 Patrick. 
 
 In the opinion of many, Mr. Mapleson-Smith is 
 the most eminent solicitor in London, and it must 
 be confessed that his clientele is large and is drawn 
 
 329
 
 A Legal Practitioner 
 
 from all classes of society. His offices are just below 
 mine, but I have the merest nodding acquaintance 
 with him, and I have no doubt that he regards me and 
 my methods much as a motor-car may be supposed 
 to regard a sedan-chair. It did seem improbable 
 that Mr. Mapleson- Smith had referred one of his 
 clients to me. 
 
 When the caller was ushered in, he proved to be 
 such an extraordinary clerical scarecrow that the 
 bow, with which I generally receive a stranger, 
 arrested itself half made, and I stood and stared at 
 him. The orthodox collar was there, but its hues 
 were those of his visiting-card and the upper part 
 bore the same high polish. He was so thin that his 
 clerical raiment seemed to hang upon him as upon 
 a clothes-prop, and its seediness was such, that even 
 in the Museum reading-room it would have attracted 
 notice. As he stood before me, the September sun- 
 shine fell upon his deplorable garments, and I noticed 
 that their tint which at one moment I should have 
 called green, and the next brown was masked here 
 and there by a filmy something highly suggestive of 
 mildew, and that all the darns and patches were the 
 work of some incompetent amateur. He stood up- 
 right, but with his left knee bent and the foot poised 
 on its tip, close behind the heel of its fellow. Bound 
 the toecap of the visible right boot was a string 
 bandage, which bound the upper to the sole. In 
 one hand he held an untidy parcel, done up in 
 
 330
 
 The Rev. Patrick Angus 
 
 newspaper, and in the other a silk hat of very 
 disreputable appearance. 
 
 When this apparition broke upon me, the odd- 
 ness of the man's thin figure, draped in such strange 
 apparel, absorbed my whole attention ; but when an 
 instant later I came to scrutinize his face, I was 
 astonished to find that it was of an ascetic cast and 
 was almost venerable. It was crowned by an abun- 
 dant crop of greyish white hair, and despite the 
 smoothness of the forehead and the rose-leaf fresh- 
 ness of the complexion, it was the face of a man 
 who had touched seventy. It was long and thin and, 
 save for a slight frosty stubble, it was clean-shaven. 
 There was a deepening of the rosy-tint about the 
 point of the nose, and this and a certain slackness 
 about the mouth, hinted an explanation of the scare- 
 crow clothing ; but the big, grey eyes were so bright 
 and at that moment so helpless, and they wore such 
 a look of appeal, that I forgot the grotesqueness of 
 the man's figure, and stood gazing into his face, half 
 conscious of a vague desire to do something to abate 
 the sorrow of those pleading eyes. 
 
 "What is it?" I asked, when we were both 
 seated. 
 
 " I must ask you to allow me to begin by telling 
 my story from beginning to end in my own way." 
 
 He spoke with placid dignity and in a manner 
 that was undoubtedly that of a gentleman and a 
 clergyman. There was even a suspicion of authority 
 
 33i
 
 A Legal Practitioner 
 
 in his tone, and yet it was not easy to look upon him, 
 seated there, without smiling. One thin leg was 
 crossed over the other ; the mysterious left foot still 
 hidden. His hat was on the floor beside him, but he 
 still held the parcel. So unnatural was his attitude 
 as he nursed it on one arm, that I felt sure he was 
 using it to conceal something. I noticed too, that 
 his hat stood top-uppermost, and I wondered what 
 the interior was like. 
 
 " By all means, tell your story in your own way," 
 said I. 
 
 The story when told was as follows : My visitor 
 was the owner of an annuity of sixty pounds on his 
 own life in the Caledonian Provident Corporation. 
 For many years it had been paid to him regularly in 
 Edinburgh, but when the last quarter fell due, the 
 office refused to pay because some one had unright- 
 eously given notice of an assignment of the annuity 
 to himseli Thereupon the annuitant had journeyed 
 to London, that being the place where the purchase 
 of the annuity had been negotiated, and had demanded 
 payment in King William Street. 
 
 The reverend gentleman had told his story with 
 perfect clearness and moderation until it reached this 
 point ; but no sooner had he mentioned the London 
 manager, than he broke off to denounce him in 
 language of great majesty, poured forth in a voice 
 and manner that recalled to memory the Evangelical 
 Sabbaths of my boyhood. 
 
 332
 
 The Rev. Patrick Angus 
 
 " Thereupon, I shook the dust of the place from 
 off my feet, sir," he boomed, with an appropriate 
 flourish of his disengaged arm ; " and now I have 
 come to you to ask, nay, to demand, that such pro- 
 ceedings may be taken, as will give me the protection 
 to which the laws of my country entitle me." 
 
 The big grey eyes sparkled with indignation, and 
 he wound up with another flourish of his arm. Un- 
 luckily, at this moment his left foot burst from its 
 retirement and disclosed a dilapidated boot, with 
 gaping jaws, through which five bare toes were 
 visible. My astonished gaze drew his attention to 
 what had happened. His eyes followed mine, and 
 for a moment they dwelt upon the dilapidated boot as 
 upon something strange and wonderful. Then he 
 burst into a high-pitched, cackling laugh, and I saw 
 the bare toes wriggle, as if rejoicing in their liberty. 
 The spectacle was so odd, and his mirth so genuine and 
 so infectious, that I found myself laughing violently. 
 
 " I wanted to look as smart as possible, so as to 
 make a good impression," said my reverend client 
 with a twinkling eye, when our merriment had sub- 
 sided. " But you will see the thing through for me 
 won't you ? " he added coaxingly. 
 
 " I'll do what I can. Hadn't you better put that 
 parcel down ? " 
 
 He complied with alacrity. The parcel had 
 shielded from view a long rent, through which a con- 
 siderable stretch of skinny arm was visible. 
 
 333
 
 A Legal Practitioner 
 
 " It doesn't do to show people that you wear no 
 underclothing," he remarked airily ; " they seem to 
 think it isn't respectable." 
 
 The absurdity of this popular delusion led him to 
 indulge in another cackling laugh. 
 
 "Let us return to business," said I. "Who 
 claims to hold this alleged assignment of your 
 annuity ? " 
 
 " He's a man in Aberdeen." 
 
 " And he says you gave him an assignment ? " 
 
 " So I did, as a matter of fact." 
 
 " Then where's your grievance ? " 
 
 Mr. Angus smiled. " It was a little joke of mine. 
 The annuity can't be assigned. It was granted as 
 an unalienable personal provision of an eleemosynary 
 character." He seemed to be quoting, more or less 
 literally, the language of some legal document. 
 
 I was a little shocked at my client's want of 
 principle; and absurd though it may seem, I was, 
 too, a little surprised. 
 
 " I don't see where the joke comes in," I observed. 
 
 I think it had been Mr. Angus's aim to lure me 
 on to some expression of disapproval ; for as I said 
 this in a voice that smacked of virtuous severity, 
 his whole face lit up and his eyes danced joyfully. 
 
 " He was a money-lender," he explained. 
 
 " And he thought he was getting your annuity ? " 
 
 Mr. Angus nodded ; his eyes riveted upon my face 
 and still twinkling. 
 
 334
 
 The Rev. Patrick Angus 
 
 I am, I hope, a person of respectability and in- 
 tegrity, and of good credit in the neighbourhood in 
 which I reside and carry on business. I hope, too, 
 that I hold all fraud in loathing and contempt ; but 
 I confess that as I stared at my new client and 
 pondered over what he had said, the fact that the 
 scarecrow sitting opposite had been too much for a 
 money-lender, appealed to me as something irresist- 
 ibly comical. " They say in Scotland, that no Jew 
 can make a living in Aberdeen," thought I. My 
 severity relaxed, and I laughed aloud. 
 
 "But if the matter is so clear, why don't the 
 Corporation pay ? " was my next question. 
 
 " The people in Edinburgh said that they were 
 consulting the London office ; so I thought it best 
 to go to London without loss of time." 
 
 " Why ? " I asked. 
 
 Mr. Angus paused and rubbed his nose. "I 
 thought I should like the trip," was his answer. 
 
 "When was it you last saw the Edinburgh 
 people ? " 
 
 " The thirtieth of June that was the day the 
 money was due." 
 
 " But, Good Heavens, man ! " I exclaimed, " do 
 you know what to-day is ? " 
 
 " Somewhere about the twentieth of September ; 
 isn't it?" 
 
 " It's the twenty-fifth." 
 
 Mr. Angus seemed to attach no importance to the 
 335
 
 A Legal Practitioner 
 
 five lost days. " I walked most of the way, you see," 
 he explained, with a glance at his boots. " There 
 wasn't any great hurry ; and, besides, I had no 
 money." 
 
 " I am without a cure of souls just at present," he 
 added, after taking another glance at his boots, and 
 resting his eye for a moment on the torn sleeve. 
 
 There are some things so self-evident that the 
 mere statement of them, offered in good faith, pro- 
 vokes a smile. Did Mr. Angus suppose that any 
 sane person could associate him with the present or 
 recent holding of a cure of souls ? Not a bit of it ! 
 The man sat hugging himself in the enjoyment of his 
 own joke, and wondering if I had seen it. Presently 
 his mirth exploded in a chuckle that would not be 
 suppressed, and this was followed by the high-pitched 
 cackle of his laugh. 
 
 " He finds amusement," thought I, "in the con- 
 trast between what he is and what he ought to be. 
 Perhaps he finds consolation, too a mad world, my 
 masters ! " 
 
 "You haven't told me why the London office 
 refused payment. You broke off to denounce the 
 manager, you may remember," I remarked. 
 
 For a moment my client looked as if he intended to 
 resume his denunciations, but he thought better of it. 
 
 " He insisted on my being identified ; I who have 
 drawn the annuity for over twenty years and that 
 after I had shown him my card." 
 
 336
 
 The Rev. Patrick Angus 
 
 His tones thrilled once more with the reverbera- 
 ting indignation of the pulpit when he recalled this 
 crowning infamy. 
 
 "Your card was no sort of an identification " 
 
 I began ; and then I paused, for he was scanning my 
 table as if in search of something. 
 
 " By-the-by, you have it," he said anxiously. 
 
 The card lay at my side. When I held it out, the 
 owner almost snatched at it, and he at once pro- 
 ceeded to enwrap it in a piece of oilskin, which he 
 produced from some invisible pocket in his clerical 
 waistcoat. 
 
 " I should be lost without it," he exclaimed glee- 
 fully as he stowed the little packet away; and this 
 time I laughed with him. 
 
 " I'll see the London manager," I said. " This is 
 the Long Vacation, and a walk to the City will do me 
 good. You come back again this afternoon say at 
 about four ! You will, perhaps, be glad to spend part 
 of the time in lunching." 
 
 Mr. Angus had risen to his feet and had resumed 
 possession of his hat and parcel. His left eyelid 
 quivered at my mention of lunch. He understood me. 
 
 "Would a shilling ?" I continued hesita- 
 tingly, as I groped in a trouser-pocket. 
 
 " It would be the very thing," he answered eagerly. 
 
 As I handed over the coin, I felt a ridiculous 
 regret that I had not mentioned half a crown ; for 
 there was in the man's eyes the same pitiful, forlorn 
 
 337 z
 
 A Legal Practitioner 
 
 look, which had stirred me in his favour at the begin- 
 ning. I felt sure that it meant gratitude this time ; 
 and somehow, it seemed a return out of a proportion 
 for the shilling which I had given him. 
 
 " By-the-by," I said, as he stood at the door of 
 my room, "why did Mr. Mapleson-Smith refer you 
 to me ? " 
 
 I ought to have asked him this at the opening 
 of our interview, but I had forgotten it. 
 
 He turned round and hesitated for a moment. 
 " They said my case was too difficult for them, and 
 I must go to you if I wanted it properly attended to." 
 
 " Who said that ? " I demanded. 
 
 "It was the whole office, I think, except Mr. 
 Smith himself. He was out of town, they said." 
 
 There was a tremor in Mr. Angus's voice, and it 
 was evident that he felt some difficulty in preserving 
 his gravity. 
 
 "I first told my story to the gentleman who 
 opened the door," he continued, " and then he fetched 
 another. They took a lot of interest in it, and while 
 they were asking me questions, some more dropped 
 in ; and, at last, I think there must have been half a 
 dozen there. And they all said the case was so 
 difficult, I must go to you." 
 
 By this time I perfectly understood the joke that 
 my neighbour's clerks had been playing. 
 
 " They seem to have given you excellent advice, 
 anyhow," I remarked, smiling. 
 
 338
 
 The Rev. Patrick Angus 
 
 The reverend gentleman's feelings found relief in 
 a shriek of laughter. 
 
 " First rate ! " he exclaimed. " First rate ! I'm 
 very much obliged to them." 
 
 "You don't happen to have such a thing as a 
 needle and cotton ? " he inquired, as he made a move 
 to depart, and the glaring rent in his sleeve caught 
 his eye. " Ah, well," he remarked, in answer to my 
 shake of the head ; " I dare say the gentlemen outside 
 can assist me." 
 
 It was nearly an hour later that I prepared 
 to start for King William Street, but when I had 
 shut my door behind me, and was about to cross 
 the den in which my shorthand clerk usually sits, 
 and which lies between my sanctum and the out- 
 side office, I heard through the partition my new 
 client's voice uplifted in shrill tones of mirth, and 
 when it ceased, the loud laughter of two other persons 
 followed. 
 
 "Peacock and Tommy Murchison seem to be 
 having a good time with the reverend gentleman," 
 was my inward comment ; and I decided to see him 
 off the premises before taking my departure. 
 
 I was about to summon Peacock and direct him 
 to detain Mr. Angus no longer, when I caught a 
 sound of movement in the outer office. Then I heard 
 the door open, and after some highly jocular conver- 
 sation on the landing, in which the voice of the 
 stranger at the same high pitch of amusement, took 
 
 339
 
 A Legal Practitioner 
 
 the leading part, the door slammed, and my two 
 henchmen returned to their seats. 
 
 "He's off," I thought; and presently from my 
 window I saw him making his way across the Square 
 towards Holborn. He was walking swiftly, twirling 
 his parcel in the air. There was a springiness in his 
 gait, quite wonderful at his time of life, and from 
 certain movements of his head and shoulders, it was 
 plain that he was laughing heartily. 
 
 I had not proceeded far on my way to the City 
 before I got another glimpse of my new client. Hard 
 by the corner of Gray's Inn Eoad, I came upon a 
 woman selling walnuts a comfortable dame, bulky 
 of figure, and encased in many thicknesses of wear- 
 ing-apparel. She was sitting on an upturned basket 
 at the edge of the pavement, and snuggled up close 
 beside her, sat the Reverend Patrick Angus, cracking 
 and eating walnuts. His hat was on his lap, and 
 the top was doing duty as a plate ; his teeth served 
 as nut-crackers. There he sat, beaming upon his 
 companion, and pouring out, so far as his occupation 
 would allow him, an unbroken stream of facetious 
 conversation, while she, good soul, worked at the 
 rent sleeve with needle and thread. As I watched 
 him unobserved, I envied him his capacity for making 
 friends. 
 
 "He's quite right," said the London manager, 
 when I had laid before him the gist of my client's 
 story; "we're bound to pay him, and no one else. 
 
 340
 
 The Rev. Patrick Angus 
 
 The annuity can't be assigned or encumbered. We 
 told him we'd stretch a point and pay him up here 
 this time, if he'd only get himself identified. Our 
 Edinburgh people know him; but we're bound to 
 call for an identification." 
 
 " He didn't understand," said I. 
 
 " He wouldn't understand. I tried to explain, but 
 he cut up rusty ; and it ended in his going off in a 
 devil of a rage. I advised him to consult a solicitor. 
 Rum card, he is ! " And the London manager shook 
 with internal laughter. 
 
 " You don't doubt that he's your annuitant ? " 
 
 " Good Lord, no ! He's the man, right enough. 
 I remember the annuity being purchased. That's 
 more than twenty years ago. I was here then ; but 
 I never saw him before last Monday." 
 
 "That's three days ago," I exclaimed, in some 
 surprise. "I thought he had just left you when he 
 came to Gray's Inn." 
 
 The manager laughed again. "Just like him," 
 he said. "One of our Edinburgh people was 
 here last week, and he told me something about 
 him." 
 
 " I hope his record isn't a very bad one." 
 
 "More his own enemy than anything else, I 
 fancy." 
 
 "You're still willing to pay upon a proper 
 identification." 
 
 " Oh yes ! I shall be glad to let him have his 
 34i
 
 A Legal Practitioner 
 
 money. I couldn't help liking the old chap. Got 
 
 the better of a money-lender, too ! " 
 
 " What sort of identification do you want ? " 
 "If he knows anybody who has a banking 
 
 account, that'll do. His friend can identify him, and 
 
 the bank manager can identify his own customer; 
 
 we know every bank manager in London." 
 
 Upon my return to Gray's Inn, I found an 
 
 astonishing placard pinned to my office door: 
 
 " BETURN IN FIVE MINUTES. PLEASE WAIT." The bold 
 
 characters were in the handwriting of Mr. Thomas 
 Murchison. 
 
 "This is disgraceful!" I ejaculated, as I let 
 myself in with my key. "The Long Vacation is no 
 excuse for leaving the place empty." 
 
 To make sure of catching Thomas on his return, 
 I left open the door of my own room and of the small 
 room before it. 
 
 "I will have a little talk to Tommy," said I. 
 
 Presently I heard the outer door unlocked, and I 
 was about to strike my bell and summon the offender 
 to my presence, when I became aware that he had 
 brought Mr. Angus in with him. 
 
 "You're two hours early," said Tommy's genial 
 voice ; " the governor said you were coming at four. 
 He won't be back till then." 
 
 " I thought you wouldn't mind my waiting here 
 for a bit." 
 
 "Delighted sit you down ! " 
 342
 
 The Rev. Patrick Angus 
 
 "Where's the other gentleman?" asked the 
 visitor. " I don't know his name." 
 
 " Our Mr. Tubby ! He's out at lunch. He or I 
 have to keep on guard just now; everybody else is 
 away holiday-making." 
 
 "I've all but finished my lunch," said Mr. Angus, 
 comfortably, as he cracked a walnut. "May I offer 
 you one?" 
 
 " Not for me, thanks. Don't bother to put 
 the shells in your hat ! Chuck 'em in the fire- 
 place." 
 
 I heard the shells rattle on the fender. 
 
 "You have to read a lot for your profession," sug- 
 gested the reverend gentleman. 
 
 " The reading part's easy enough. It's knowing 
 what isn't in the books that makes a man a solicitor. 
 That's the esoteric part of our profession, Mr. Angus ; 
 but I'll tell you just one thing. When the governor 
 comes back from the City, Tubby will have to chalk 
 down two cab fares in your bill " 
 
 " But your governor said he'd walk," interrupted 
 the client. 
 
 " That's just it. Any fool would know that a pay- 
 ment must be charged, if it was made ; it's the knowing 
 you must charge it, whether or no. You won't find 
 that in the books." 
 
 "Why must you charge it?" The reverend 
 gentleman was evidently much interested. 
 
 "It's the proper thing to do. You won't deny 
 343
 
 A Legal Practitioner 
 
 that the natural way for a solicitor to go from Gray's 
 Inn to the City is in a cab will you ? " 
 
 Mr. Angus cracked a walnut before replying. "I 
 don't say it isn't," he remarked. 
 
 " Well then ! there's an old maxim that equity 
 regards as done that which ought to be done, and 
 the Judicature Act says that the rules of equity shall 
 prevail. Now you see it ; don't you ? " 
 
 " It seems a strange sort of equity to an outsider, 
 I mean ? " Mr. Angus said this with a chuckle, as soon 
 as he had grasped the boy's meaning. "Don't the 
 clients grumble a bit sometimes ? " 
 
 "They don't know." 
 
 From the manner in which this was uttered, and the 
 appreciative laugh with which it was acknowledged, I felt 
 sure that Tommy had fortified his meaning by a wink. 
 
 "Do you suppose your governor will get my 
 annuity ? " asked the client, after a pause. 
 
 "He'll get it, right enough. The question is 
 whether you'll get anything." 
 
 It seemed hard that Thomas Peverill Murchison 
 should amuse himself by blackening my character in 
 this wanton manner. His falsehood about the esoteric 
 cab fares was bad enough, but this last innuendo was 
 unspeakable. I tried to comfort myself by thinking 
 that perhaps I should have done the same at his age ; 
 and on this followed the reflection that an eaves- 
 dropper deserved all that he got. But I made no 
 move to disclose my presence. 
 
 344
 
 The Rev. Patrick Angus 
 
 "Why shan't I get it, if he gets it?" asked Mr. 
 Angus, in some astonishment. 
 
 " How about our bill of costs ? You don't suppose 
 an office like ours works for nothing ? " 
 
 " I don't think it's usual," admitted the client ; 
 " but fifteen pounds is a lot of money." 
 
 " It's a mere nothing when you get into a solicitor's 
 hands. Why, a good bit of it's gone already. Just 
 you listen to Tubby's entries." 
 
 Mr. Murchison moved from his seat, and I heard 
 the cover of some heavy book, probably my ledger, 
 flung back upon Peacock's desk. 
 
 " It's no good your coming to look at it ; it's in 
 shorthand. I'll read it to you Bill of costs against 
 the Rev. Patrick Angus, B.A. that's the heading ! 
 Now listen ! 
 
 t. d, 
 
 "September %5th. Clerk's attendance upon 
 you on your calling at my office and ex- 
 pressing a desire to see me at once upon 
 important business, when you produced 
 your visiting card, and after some con- 
 ference and discussion, you were admitted 
 to my presence same charge as a letter 060 
 " Attending you in long conference, when you 
 explained the nature of your business and 
 I advised you thereon ; and eventually 
 you instructed me to make a special 
 journey to the City on your behalf ..110 
 345
 
 A Legal Practitioner 
 
 . d. 
 
 " Mr. Tubby and Mr. Murchison subsequently 
 attending you, when you reported to them 
 the result of the above interview, and 
 gave them full particulars of the facts, 
 which you had just disclosed to me, and 
 'of the advice which I had given you, 
 and when you proceeded to apply for the 
 loan of certain sewing materials, and 
 same after a prolonged search could not 
 be found, and you were advised to en- 
 deavowr to obtain them elsewhere 
 engaged nearly an hour 220" 
 
 "Why two guineas?" demanded Mr. Angus. 
 There was surprise in his voice, but no suggestion 
 of complaint. 
 
 "You consulted two of us Tubby and me." 
 
 This explanation seemed quite satisfactory to the 
 client. 
 
 " Then it's lucky for me Mr. Tubby isn't in now," 
 he remarked humorously, and he chuckled as if con- 
 gratulating himself upon his good fortune. 
 
 " That fifteen pounds will be gone in no time, at 
 that rate," he admitted, with another chuckle. 
 
 " It'll go like smoke." 
 
 "But perhaps they won't pay it, after all," 
 suggested the annuitant, with a shriek of laughter, as 
 a happy thought struck him. 
 
 346
 
 The Rev. Patrick Angus 
 
 "That would make the governor sit up," was my 
 traducer's comment, as he shut the book with 
 another bang. 
 
 " I suppose you'll be glad to get the money," he 
 resumed. 
 
 "I don't care so much about this one quarter, if 
 it comes in all right afterwards; I can get through 
 till the next quarter-day all right, that's only a 
 few days but I can't go on for ever. It's the 
 future I'm thinking of. A man of my age, Mr. 
 Murchison, has got settled in his habits," he 
 went on, in perfect good faith, and with unabated 
 cheerfulness ; " he's got into a groove, and I don't 
 like the idea of going into the workhouse. I dare 
 say I could make myself comfortable ; but it's a 
 restraint on an active man's liberty, and, to my 
 mind, there's a certain indignity in having to give 
 up your own clothes." 
 
 Here, I blush to say, Tommy spluttered. He tried 
 to cover this lapse by blowing his nose; but Mr. 
 Angus was not deceived, nor was he at all offended. 
 
 "They were all right when I started," he said, 
 laughing. 
 
 " I suppose you wouldn't care to wear a suit of 
 clothes that had been worn by somebody else ? " 
 hinted Tommy. 
 
 " These clothes weren't new when they came to 
 me. I really can't remember when I last had any 
 new ones." 
 
 347
 
 A Legal Practitioner 
 
 "We've got three or four bishops among our 
 clients." Mr. Murchison's tone was full of meaning 
 as he uttered this falsehood. 
 
 "You don't say so," returned Mr. Angus, with 
 polite indifference ; and he cracked another walnut. 
 
 "I was thinking," continued the youthful 
 Ananias, "that if you cared to accept a suit of 
 clothes, I might give you a note to one of them. I 
 could write it on the office paper, you know. London's 
 about your build." 
 
 " I shouldn't like to trouble him," said the other, 
 gravely; and then he burst into a prolonged and 
 joyous laugh. 
 
 "Bishops don't give away their clothes; who 
 could wear them ? " he exclaimed, still shaken by his 
 merriment. 
 
 " But they must do something benevolent with 
 'em when they get a bit shabby." 
 
 Mr. Angus laughed again. " Perhaps the suffra- 
 gans wear them out," was his suggestion. 
 
 "If I had to walk back to Scotland, I shouldn't 
 be comfortable in a bishop's clothes," he resumed, 
 his mirth still bubbling ; " and it wouldn't be seemly ; 
 I might get put in prison." 
 
 " You can take it from me, there's nothing unlaw- 
 ful in it," asserted his legal adviser. 
 
 " And there's another thing. I had a touch of 
 bronchitis at Durham, so I went into the infirmary 
 there for a few days. If that happened on the way 
 
 348
 
 The Rev. Patrick Angus 
 
 back, they wouldn't take me in if they thought I 
 was a bishop. And suppose I found it convenient 
 to lie up for a night as a casual ; what should I look 
 like standing in the row outside the gate ? " 
 
 Here, he laughed again, and even Tommy's 
 gravity could hold out no longer. Under cover of 
 their outbursts, I indulged in a quiet snigger on my 
 own account. The whole escapade was a piece of 
 boyish folly, and I ought to have nipped it in the 
 bud ; but I had made no sign, and now my mental 
 pictures of Mr. Angus cruising northward, clothed in 
 a bishop's garb, were positively irresistible. 
 
 "It seems almost a pity you don't tie up that 
 left boot of yours; it looks so shabby beside the 
 other," was Tommy's next remark. 
 
 " I've done it up again and again," protested the 
 clergyman ; " but it won't hold; it will keep slipping 
 off in front. It's some unfortunate peculiarity in my 
 gait, Mr. Murchinson." 
 
 He made this confession with great seriousness 
 and something like a sigh. 
 
 " I came across a sailorman at Barnet fair," he 
 continued; "but even that was a disappointment. 
 He tied it so tight, I couldn't walk." 
 
 " You haven't tried wire or a bit of hoop-iron ? " 
 
 But that fiasco at Barnet was still rankling in the 
 pilgrim's breast. 
 
 " I shan't bother any more about it," he said 
 viciously. " After all, it doesn't really matter ; I can 
 
 349
 
 A Legal Practitioner 
 
 get along all right. It isn't as if I wanted to run 
 races." Mr. Angus had recovered his spirits by this 
 time, and he finished up with a laugh. 
 
 At this stage of the proceedings the outer door 
 opened, and I recognized Peacock's heavy footstep. 
 
 Mr. Murchison's imagination took a new flight. 
 "Just in time!" was his greeting. "Mr. Angus 
 is going to sing." 
 
 " There'll be no singing in this office while I'm in 
 charge," retorted Peacock. 
 
 " But the governor won't be back yet awhile, and 
 I'll keep an eye on the Square. Mr. Angus was telling 
 us this morning about the singing he did on his way 
 here. Don't you remember that supper after the 
 funeral at Stamford ? " 
 
 To my astonishment, the new client seemed more 
 than willing to give a specimen of his powers. 
 
 " Of course if Mr. Tubby has any objection " 
 
 he began. 
 
 " But he doesn't object ; do you, now ? " 
 
 The temptation to hear the visitor sing was too 
 strong for official virtue. 
 
 " I don't know that I do," was the answer. 
 
 " My voice isn't what it was," preluded Mr. 
 Angus, "but there's a little song I wrote at 
 Cambridge that might make you laugh. It's called 
 * The Exile of Highbury.' I wrote it to annoy one of 
 the dons, whose rooms were near mine. And it used 
 to annoy him very much," he went on, with a chuckle 
 
 350
 
 The Rev. Patrick Angus 
 
 over the recollection of that annoyance, now fifty 
 years old. " We used to sing it with the doors open. I 
 wrote a lot of songs in those days." Then he cleared 
 his throat, and piped up in a thin, clear treble 
 
 " I was serving as assistant to a draper in the Strand, 
 When a parson said to me, 
 
 ' The appropriate arenaft for a man of your demeanafc 
 Is a College of Divinitee. 
 
 You are toiling, you are moiling, and your food is very plain 
 Gold meat and bread and tea ; 
 
 You can feast on steak and oysters in the venerable cloisters 
 Of the College of St. John at Highburee 
 
 High-bur-ee ! 
 
 And a fund for Church Defences will be good for your expenses 
 At the College of St, John at Highburee.' 
 
 " My master tried to stop it by the offer of a rise, 
 But I went my way in peace ; 
 
 For a draper and a hosier cannot offer you the crozier 
 Of a missionary di-o-cese. 
 'Twas a backstairs way and a little underground, 
 But good enough for me ; 
 
 So I left my counter-jumping, to be trained for cushion- 
 thumping 
 In the College of St. John at Highburee 
 
 High-bur-ee ! 
 
 And I gloried when I stood in the pickle-cabbage hood 
 Of the College of St. John at Highburee. 
 
 " I was very quickly favoured with an honourable berth : 
 I thanked my lucky stars, 
 
 And with joy my eyes were wetted, when I saw myself gazetted, 
 Archdeacon of the Nicobars. 
 
 And when I sailed triumphant for those islands far away, 
 I left upon the quay 
 
 A majestic deputation from that opulent foundation, 
 The College of St. John at Highburee 
 
 High-bur-ee ! 
 
 The Master, and the fellows, and the boy who blew the bellows 
 At the College of St. John at Highburee. 
 
 351
 
 A Legal Practitioner 
 
 11 But now that I; am settled in the land of my desire 
 I curse my dignitee ; 
 
 For what are rank and gaiters, If you have to live on 'taters 
 In the practice of eoonomee ? 
 
 I am wearing to a shadow, for In days that are no more, 
 Whatever we might be 
 Evangelical or Airian we were never vegetarian 
 In the College of St. John at Highburee 
 
 High-bur-ee I 
 
 There was fish and there was flesh in the comfortable mesh 
 Of the College of St. John at Highburee. 
 
 " I am burdened with a people who are turbulent and wild ; 
 And heathen though they be, 
 
 They are always argiefying ; for their fervour is undying, 
 And they're better theologians than me. 
 I am worn and I am weary, I am sick and I am tired ; 
 And I long to cross the sea 
 
 To the very classic groves and the fishes and the loaves 
 Of the College of St. John at Highburee 
 
 High-bur-ee ! 
 
 0-h, I long to hide my mug in the hollow of a jug 
 At the College of St. John at Highburee 1 " 
 
 During the progress of the song, Mr. Murchison 
 had now and again, thrown in a little assistance, and 
 Peacock, as I afterwards discovered, had jotted down 
 the words in shorthand. At the close, the applause of 
 both hearers was so enthusiastic, that before resum- 
 ing his seat, the venerable songster indulged in a 
 brief double- shuffle. I could follow the figures of 
 this dance with tolerable accuracy; for the scrape 
 of one foot on the oilcloth was clear and rasping, 
 while the movement of the other was subdued and 
 muffled. That was the string bandage. 
 
 "Why was the gentleman annoyed?" asked 
 Peacock, who was evidently puzzled. 
 
 35 2
 
 The Rev. Patrick Angus 
 
 " He had been a student there at one time, and 
 he wasn't proud of it." 
 
 " But it's well spoke of in the neighb'rood ; I 
 come by there every morning," resumed Peacock, 
 still all at sea. "And I never heard it was such a 
 place for eating and drinking." 
 
 "It might have been anything, for all I knew, 
 or cared, about it," said the poet, chuckling. "I 
 was young, my dear Mr. Tubby, and young men at 
 college; they're not like Mr. Murchison. They 
 haven't the responsibilities of a profession on their 
 shoulders. Hee, hee, hee ! " 
 
 " I must be going to Theobalds Koad," announced 
 Peacock; "I shan't be more than twenty minutes." 
 
 "I will come with you, if you will allow me," 
 said the visitor, eagerly. " A little walk will help 
 to pass the time ; and I think, Mr. Tubby, a leetle, 
 1-e-e-tle drop of gin and water will do neither of us 
 any harm." 
 
 " Not me, thank you ! " 
 
 Peacock's bluntness was lost upon the reverend 
 gentleman. 
 
 "We'll talk about that outside," he remarked 
 gaily. 
 
 Two minutes after their departure, I heard 
 the outer door slammed with great violence, and 
 before another half minute had elapsed, I saw 
 Tommy racing across the Square in the direction of 
 Holborn. 
 
 353 2 A
 
 A Legal Practitioner 
 
 " Thank goodness ! He wants a ' special,' " said 
 I gratefully; "I'll let myself into the gardens and 
 have a cigar." 
 
 My second interview with Mr. Angus opened 
 stormily. As soon as I had laid before him the 
 result of my mission, he flew into a tantrum, and 
 vowed that, come what might, he would not submit 
 to be identified. At one time he was even disposed 
 to take high ground, and to hint that unless legal 
 proceedings were instituted forthwith, he must avail 
 himself of the services of some other solicitor. I was 
 very gentle with him; for I could see that he had 
 expected me to come back with the money in my 
 pocket, and that the disappointment, working, per- 
 haps, upon a leetle, 1-e-e-tle drop of gin and water, 
 had made him fractious. When, by a judicious 
 mixture of firmness and banter, I had managed to 
 bring him to reason, it appeared that the matter 
 could be arranged without difficulty, for he was 
 acquainted with a responsible person in the City, 
 who, if get-at-able, would gladly identify him to the 
 manager's satisfaction. 
 
 " Then you'll take your friend there the first thing 
 to-morrow morning ! " said I. 
 
 " Won't you come too ? " 
 
 " What good should I be ? " 
 
 " They won't pay me direct, after seeing you." 
 
 " They won't pay anybody else." 
 
 He pondered over this assurance, with his head a 
 354
 
 The Rev. Patrick Angus 
 
 little on one side, and when he next spoke, I detected 
 a crafty twinkle in his eye. 
 
 " If it must be done, it must, and I must wait till 
 to-morrow," he said indifferently. " But it's a sad 
 loss of time a sad loss of time," he added; his 
 irritation peeping out once again. 
 
 " You took it pretty easy, coming from Edinburgh," 
 I hinted. 
 
 " It was such beautiful weather after I got across 
 the Border," he pleaded, with an odd, humorous smile. 
 
 "And it's three days since you went to King 
 William Street." 
 
 He received this with one of his shrill, cackling 
 laughs. 
 
 " That wasn't my fault," he exclaimed. " I 
 couldn't find a solicitor." 
 
 " But you didn't go to my neighbour till this 
 morning." 
 
 "I went to five before I went to him. They 
 wouldn't even hear my story. I was really getting 
 quite disheartened, especially after being sent away 
 downstairs." 
 
 He checked himself in his merriment as he made 
 this confession, and sat silent for a minute, staring 
 at the dilapidated boots. 
 
 " But it was a rare stroke of luck, their sending 
 me here," he said suddenly ; and, looking up into my 
 face, he laughed again. 
 
 "Don't be hard on the manager," I remarked at 
 355
 
 A Legal Practitioner 
 
 parting. " He seemed a little hurt by what you said 
 on Monday." 
 
 The delicious suggestion that Mr. Angus was a 
 person to be held in awe by one of the Corporation's 
 most prominent officials worked like a charm. 
 
 " I must make him an apology," he cried, with a 
 beaming countenance. 
 
 As I bade him good-bye, I slipped a florin into 
 his hand. I did not expect to see him again, and I 
 thought that I should sleep none the worse that night, 
 if I knew that he had a roof over him. 
 
 On the afternoon of the day following I was 
 passing along Verulam Buildings towards my office, 
 when suddenly I came upon Peacock and the old 
 gentleman proceeding briskly in the opposite direction. 
 A clay pipe, about an inch in length, was between 
 the client's lips, and he seemed to be bubbling over 
 with mirth and loquacity as he jigged along, hanging 
 on to the arm of his stouter companion, and swinging 
 the newspaper parcel to and fro. Peacock recognized 
 me with a blush and a very embarrassed grin, but 
 the other was too much engrossed with his own out- 
 pourings to have any eyes for things around him. I 
 was in no mood to be detained just then ; and as I 
 slipped by I was able, by means of a ferocious scowl, 
 to make Peacock understand that Mr. Angus must not 
 be warned of my proximity. Looking back from the 
 shelter of the tunnel, I saw the two figures and the 
 waving parcel pass out into the Gray's Inn Eoad. 
 
 356
 
 The Rev. Patrick Angus 
 
 "Some new difficulty friend out of town!" 
 thought I, and I felt half-inclined to wish that I had 
 followed the example of those five other solicitors. 
 
 Mr. Murchison was no longer on guard. The 
 office boy had come back that morning, and it was 
 he who let me in. I did not trouble myself to make 
 inquiry as to the object of the reverend gentleman's 
 call. 
 
 "Is it that old chap again?" I asked irritably, 
 when, later in the afternoon, Peacock came into my 
 room. 
 
 " No, sir ; he's on his way to Scotland," was the 
 unexpected answer. 
 
 " Gone ? " I exclaimed, and I looked with aston- 
 ishment into my henchman's grinning face. 
 
 " Yes, sir ; he got the annuity this morning, and 
 he came here to let you know, and to thank you for 
 what you'd done for him. He wanted a bill of costs, 
 too." Here Peacock grinned again. 
 
 I really felt conscience-stricken. " One had no 
 business to suppose he wouldn't come," said I, 
 thinking aloud. 
 
 "When he said so much about our costs and 
 paying you back three shillings, I thought I should 
 be following your wishes, sir, if I told him it wasn't 
 to be thought of," continued Peacock. 
 
 " Quite right," said I. " The whole business was 
 nothing but a joke, and a very good joke it was, too." 
 
 "When you came across us, I was just taking 
 357
 
 A Legal Practitioner 
 
 him to a boot-shop. Mr. Murchison and I had per- 
 suaded him to get a pair of boots. 
 
 " Did yon wait to see him fitted ? " 
 
 Peacock grinned from ear to ear. " I don't think I 
 could have, sir, if he hadn't had any socks on. Luckily, 
 Mr. Murchison had an extra pair in his drawer, and 
 we made him put 'em on. They were rather a bright 
 pattern, and when he saw 'em on his feet, he was 
 that pleased, he danced up and down parading them. 
 He fairly made me laugh." 
 
 " He's a queer fish," said I. 
 
 "I'm afraid he was a bit unsteady even when he 
 was a young man," said Peacock, gloomily. "He 
 was saying yesterday, he made up comic songs when 
 he was at College strange games for a gentleman 
 studying for the Church." 
 
 " But, after all, he came back to pay his bill." 
 
 This was touching my henchman upon a very 
 tender spot. " There's many a worse ! " he admitted. 
 
 " And he ain't quite crack-brained, either," he 
 went on. " He knows what he is, right enough. As 
 soon as he got the money this morning, he went 
 straight to King's Cross and took his ticket. Then 
 he came on here. He was hardly inside the door 
 when he fished it out of the lining of his hat. " Got 
 my ticket, Mr. Tub Peacock ! " says he, as if he'd 
 done something wonderful. 
 
 Poor old chap ! I remembered those fictitious 
 items, and I understood now why he had looked so 
 
 358
 
 The Rev. Patrick Angus 
 
 crafty when he heard that the annuity would be 
 paid direct to him ; and once again my conscience 
 smote me. 
 
 " Did he really ? " was all I said. 
 
 " He likes to fling his money about when he's got 
 any. After we left the boot-shop, he wanted to give 
 me half a sovereign. I advised him to put it in the 
 Savings Bank, and he nearly had a fit. I didn't see 
 anything to laugh at." 
 
 " Nothing at all a very feasible suggestion," 
 said I, chortling inwardly. 
 
 "But he made me take the half-crown Mr. 
 Murchison gave him yesterday. He knew it wouldn't 
 be any good to offer it him direct. He said, young 
 men were often short of money ; and that set him off 
 laughing again. And he wanted to come back and 
 bid you good-bye. I told him he'd lose his train if 
 he did, and he said that didn't matter at all ; so I 
 thought the best thing I could do was to stick to him 
 till I'd seen him off." 
 
 Peacock had told his tale ; but, before leaving the 
 room, he summed matters up in his stolid, responsible 
 way. 
 
 " It's a sad thing, sir, to see a clergyman brought 
 down to what he is ; but you can't help feeling glad- 
 like he's so happy." 
 
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