s family if he were beaten? As he sat in his little office,
with his hat low down over his eyes, balancing himself on the hind
legs of his chair, he abused Honyman roundly. Had Honyman been
possessed of wit, of skill, of professional craft,--had he been the
master of any invention, all might have been well. But the attorney
was a fool, an ass, a coward. Might it not be that he was a knave?
But luckily for Honyman, and luckily also for Mr. Tappitt himself,
this abuse did not pass beyond the precincts of Tappitt's own breast.
We all know how delightful is the privilege of abusing our nearest
friends after this fashion; but we generally satisfy ourselves with
that limited audience to which Mr. Tappitt addressed himself on the
present occasion.

In the mean time Mrs. Tappitt was sitting up-stairs in the brewery
drawing-room with her daughters, and she also was not happy in her
mind. She had been snubbed, and almost browbeaten, at dinner time,
and she also had had a little conversation in private with Mr.
Honyman. She had been snubbed, and, if she did not look well about
her, she was going to be ruined. "You mustn't let him go on with this
lawsuit," Mr. Honyman had said. "He'll certainly get the worst of it
if he does, and then he'll have to pay double." She disliked Rowan
quite as keenly as did her husband, but she was fully alive to the
folly of spiting Rowan by doing an injury to her own face. She would
speak to Tappitt that night very seriously, and in the mean time
she turned the Rowan controversy over in her own mind, endeavouring
to look at it from all sides. It had never been her custom to make
critical remarks on their father's conduct to any of the girls except
Martha; but on the present great occasion she waived that rule, and
discussed the family affairs in full female family conclave. "I don't
know what's come over your papa," she began by saying. "He seems
quite beside himself to-day."

"I think he is troubled about Mr. Rowan and this lawsuit," said the
sagacious Martha.

"Nasty man! I wish he'd never come near the place," said Augusta.

"I don't know that he's very nasty either," said Cherry. "We all
liked him when he was staying here."

"But to be so false to papa!" said Augusta. "I call it swindling,
downright swindling."

"One should know and understand all about it before one speaks in
that way," said Martha. "I dare say it is very vexatious to papa; but
after all perhaps Mr. Rowan may have some ri