r."

"To hear such nonsense sets one past oneself," continued he; "as if
all those lawyers were brought together there--the cleverest and
sharpest fellows in the kingdom, mind you--to listen to a man like
John here telling his own story in his own way. You'll have to tell
your story in their way; that is, in two different ways. There'll be
one fellow'll make you tell it his way first, and another fellow'll
make you tell it again his way afterwards; and its odds but what the
first 'll be at you again after that, till you won't know whether you
stand on your heels or your head."

"That can't be right," said Mrs. Moulder.

"And why can't it be right?" said Moulder. "They're paid for it;
it's their duties; just as it's my duty to sell Hubbles and Grease's
sugar. It's not for me to say the sugar's bad, or the samples not
equal to the last. My duty is to sell, and I sell;--and it's their
duty to get a verdict."

"But the truth, Moulder--!" said Kenneby.

"Gammon!" said Moulder. "Begging your pardon, Mrs. Smiley, for making
use of the expression. Look you here, John; if you're paid to bring
a man off not guilty, won't you bring him off if you can? I've been
at trials times upon times, and listened till I've wished from the
bottom of my heart that I'd been brought up a barrister. Not that I
think much of myself, and I mean of course with education and all
that accordingly. It's beautiful to hear them. You'll see a little
fellow in a wig, and he'll get up; and there'll be a man in the box
before him,--some swell dressed up to his eyes, who thinks no end of
strong beer of himself; and in about ten minutes he'll be as flabby
as wet paper, and he'll say--on his oath, mind you,--just anything
that that little fellow wants him to say. That's power, mind you, and
I call it beautiful."

"But it ain't justice," said Mrs. Smiley.

"Why not? I say it is justice. You can have it if you choose to pay
for it, and so can I. If I buy a greatcoat against the winter, and
you go out at night without having one, is it injustice because
you're perished by the cold while I'm as warm as a toast. I say it's
a grand thing to live in a country where one can buy a greatcoat."

The argument had got so far, Mr. Moulder certainly having the best of
it, when a ring at the outer door was heard.

"Now who on earth is that?" said Moulder.

"Snengkeld, I shouldn't wonder," said his wife.

"I hope it ain't no stranger," said Mrs. Smiley. "Situated a