nd thumping the table with great vehemence.

You might have knocked Mr. Prigg down with a feather, certainly with a
bludgeon; such a shock he had never received at the hands of a client in
the whole course of his professional experience. He rose and drew from
his pocket an envelope, a very large official-looking envelope, such as
no man twice in his life would like to see, even if he could be said to
enjoy the prospect once.

It is not usual for respectable solicitors to carry about their bills of
costs in their pockets, and why Mr. Prigg should have done so on this
occasion I am not aware. I merely saw in my dream that he did so. There
was not a change in his countenance; his piety was intact; there was not
even a suffusion of colour. Placid, sweet-tempered, and urbane, as a
Christian should be, he looked pityingly towards the hot and irascible
Bumpkin, as though he should say, "You have smitten me on this cheek, now
smite me on that!" and placed the great envelope on the table before the
ungrateful man.

"What be thic?" inquired Mr. Bumpkin.

"A list of my services, sir," said Prigg, meekly: "You will see there,
ungrateful man, the sacrifices I have made on your behalf; the
journeyings oft; the hunger, and, I may say, thirst; the perils of
robbers, the perils amongst false friends, the--"

"I doant understand, sir," said Bumpkin.

"Because darkness hath blinded your eyes," said the pious lawyer; "but I
leave you, Mr. Bumpkin, and I will ask you, since you no longer repose
confidence in my judgment and integrity, to obtain the services of some
other professional gentleman, who will conduct your case with more zeal
and fidelity than you think I have shown; I who have carried your cause
to a triumphant issue; and may be said to have established the grand
principle that an Englishman's house is his castle."

And with this the good man, evidently affected by deep emotion, shook
hands silently with Mrs. Bumpkin, and disappeared for ever from my view.

Never in any dream have I beheld that man again. Never, surely, under
any form of humanity have so many virtues been concealed. I have looked
for him in daily life, about the Courts of Justice and in the political
arena, but his equal for simplicity of character, for unaffected piety,
and purity of motive, have I never discovered, although I have seen many,
who, without his talents, have vainly endeavoured to emulate his virtues.

Mrs. Bumpkin examined the docum