"Crying her heart out."

Benjulia turned away again with the air of a disappointed man. A violent
moral shock sometimes has a serious effect on the brain--especially when
it is the brain of an excitable woman. Always a physiologist, even
in those rare moments when he was amusing himself, it had just struck
Benjulia that the cook--after her outbreak of fury--might be a case
worth studying. But, she had got relief in crying; her brain was safe;
she had ceased to interest him. He returned to the dining-room.

CHAPTER XXXVIII.

"You look hot, sir; have a drink. Old English ale, out of the barrel."

The tone was hearty. He poured out the sparkling ale into a big tumbler,
with hospitable good-will. Mr. Mool was completely, and most agreeably,
taken by surprise. He too was feeling the influence of the doctor's good
humour--enriched in quality by pleasant remembrances of his interview
with the cook.

"I live in the suburbs, Doctor Benjulia, on this side of London," Mr.
Mool explained; "and I have had a nice walk from my house to yours. If I
have done wrong, sir, in visiting you on Sunday, I can only plead that I
am engaged in business during the week--"

"All right. One day's the same as another, provided you don't interrupt
me. You don't interrupt me now. Do you smoke?"

"No, thank you."

"Do you mind my smoking?"

"I like it, doctor."

"Very amiable on your part, I'm sure. What did you say your name was?"

"Mool."

Benjulia looked at him suspiciously. Was he a physiologist, and a rival?
"You're not a doctor--are you?" he said.

"I am a lawyer."

One of the few popular prejudices which Benjulia shared with his
inferior fellow-creatures was the prejudice against lawyers. But for his
angry recollection of the provocation successfully offered to him by his
despicable brother, Mrs. Gallilee would never have found her way into
his confidence. But for his hearty enjoyment of the mystification of
the cook, Mr. Mool would have been requested to state the object of
his visit in writing, and would have gone home again a baffled man. The
doctor's holiday amiability had reached its full development indeed,
when he allowed a strange lawyer to sit and talk with him!

"Gentlemen of your profession," he muttered, "never pay visits to people
whom they don't know, without having their own interests in view. Mr.
Mool, you want something of me. What is it?"

Mr. Mool's professional tact warned him to waste no time on