ssional career, the original
element was there, and must be charged for.

"I can not recall to my memory," he said, "any instance of neglect on my
part. But if that impression is upon your mind, it would be better for
you to change your legal advisers at an early opportunity. Such has been
the frequent practice, madam, of your family. And but for that, none of
this trouble could exist. I must beg you either to withdraw the charge
of negligence, which I understand you to have brought, or else to
appoint some gentleman of greater activity to conduct your business."

With the haughtiness of her headstrong race, Miss Yordas had failed as
yet to comprehend that a lawyer could be a gentleman. And even now that
idea scarcely broke upon her, until she looked hard at Mr. Jellicorse.
But he, having cast aside all deference for the moment, met her stern
gaze with such courteous indifference and poise of self-composure that
she suddenly remembered that his grandfather had been the master of a
pack of fox-hounds.

"I have made no charge of negligence; you are hasty, and misunderstand
me," she answered, after waiting for him to begin again, as if he were a
rash aggressor. "It is possible that you desire to abandon our case, and
conceive affront where none is meant whatever."

"God forbid!" Mr. Jellicorse exclaimed, with his legal state of mind
returning. "A finer case never came into any court of law. There is a
coarse axiom, not without some truth, that possession is nine points of
the law. We have possession. What is even more important, we have the
hostile instrument in our possession."

"You mean that unfortunate and unjust deed, of a by-gone time, that was
so wickedly concealed? Dishonest transaction from first to last!"

"Madam, the law is not to blame for that, nor even the lawyers; but the
clients, who kept changing them. But for that, your admirable father
must have known that the will he dictated to me was waste paper. At
least as regards the main part of these demesnes."

"What monstrous injustice! A positive premium upon filial depravity. You
regard things professionally, I suppose. But surely it must have struck
you as a flagrant dishonesty, a base and wicked crime, that a document
so vile should be allowed even to exist."

Miss Yordas had spoken with unusual heat; and the lawyer looked at her
with an air of mild inquiry. Was it possible that she suggested to him
the destruction of the wicked instrument? Ladies h