nd women of his day,
Ministers of the Government and their wives, statesmen and their
daughters, peers and members of the House in which he himself had
sat;--that these should think that, after all, he had been a base
adventurer unworthy of their society! That was the sorrow that broke
him down, and drew him to confess that his whole life had been a
failure.

Mr. Low had advised him not to see Mr. Chaffanbrass;--but he had
persisted in declaring that there were instructions which no one
but himself could give to the counsellor whose duty it would be to
defend him at the trial. Mr. Chaffanbrass came at the hour fixed,
and with him came Mr. Wickerby. The old barrister bowed courteously
as he entered the prison room, and the attorney introduced the two
gentlemen with more than all the courtesy of the outer world. "I am
sorry to see you here, Mr. Finn," said the barrister.

"It's a bad lodging, Mr. Chaffanbrass, but the term will soon be
over. I am thinking a good deal more of my next abode."

"It has to be thought of, certainly," said the barrister. "Let us
hope that it may be all that you would wish it to be. My services
shall not be wanting to make it so."

"We are doing all we can, Mr. Finn," said Mr. Wickerby.

"Mr. Chaffanbrass," said Phineas, "there is one special thing that
I want you to do." The old man, having his own idea as to what was
coming, laid one of his hands over the other, bowed his head, and
looked meek. "I want you to make men believe that I am innocent of
this crime."

This was better than Mr. Chaffanbrass expected. "I trust that we may
succeed in making twelve men believe it," said he.

"Comparatively I do not care a straw for the twelve men. It is not to
them especially that I am anxious that you should address yourself--"

"But that will be my bounden duty, Mr. Finn."

"I can well believe, sir, that though I have myself been bred a
lawyer, I may not altogether understand the nature of an advocate's
duty to his client. But I would wish something more to be done than
what you intimate."

"The duty of an advocate defending a prisoner is to get a verdict
of acquittal if he can, and to use his own discretion in making the
attempt."

"But I want something more to be attempted, even if in the struggle
something less be achieved. I have known men to be so acquitted that
every man in court believed them to be guilty."

"No doubt;--and such men have probably owed much to their advocates."