rous, and the ink
that had clotted in the good-will time began to form black blood again,
Mr. Jellicorse himself resolved legitimately to set forth upon a legal
enterprise. The winter had shaken him slightly--for even a solicitor's
body is vulnerable; and well for the clerk of the weather it is that no
action lies against him--and his good wife told him to be very careful,
although he looked as young as ever. She had no great opinion of the
people he was going to, and was sure that they would be too high and
mighty even to see that his bed was aired. For her part, she hoped that
the reports were true which were now getting into every honest person's
mouth; and if he would listen to a woman's common-sense, and at once
go over to the other side, it would serve them quite right, and be the
better for his family, and give a good lift to his profession. But his
honesty was stout, and vanquished even his pride in his profession.

CHAPTER L

PRINCELY TREATMENT

"This, then, is what you have to say," cried my lady Philippa, in a tone
of little gratitude, and perhaps not purely free from wrath; "this is
what has happened, while you did nothing?"

"Madam, I assure you," Mr. Jellicorse replied, "that no one point has
been neglected. And truly I am bold enough--though you may not perceive
it--to take a little credit to myself for the skill and activity of my
proceedings. I have a most conceited man against me; no member at all
of our honored profession; but rather inclined to make light of us.
A gentleman--if one may so describe him--of the name of Mordacks, who
lives in a den below a bridge in York, and has very long harassed
the law by a sort of cheap-jack, slap-dash, low-minded style of doing
things. 'Jobbing,' I may call it--cheap and nasty jobbing--not at all
the proper thing, from a correct point of view. 'A catch-penny fellow,'
that's the proper name for him--I was trying to think of it half the way
from Middleton."

"And now, in your eloquence, you have hit upon it. I can easily
understand that such a style of business would not meet with your
approbation. But, Mr. Jellicorse, he seems to me to have proved himself
considerably more active in his way--however objectionable that may
be--than you, as our agent, have shown yourself."

The cheerful, expressive, and innocent face of Mr. Jellicorse protested
now. By nature he was almost as honest as Geoffrey Mordacks himself
could be; and in spite of a very long profe