the loss of a dozen points
at whist will reduce to that currish aspect which reminds one of
a dog-whip. Mr. Camperdown's countenance, when Lord Fawn and Mr.
Eustace left him, had fallen away into this meanness of appearance.
He no longer carried himself as a man owning a dog-whip, but rather
as the hound that feared it.

A better attorney, for the purposes to which his life was devoted,
did not exist in London than Mr. Camperdown. To say that he was
honest, is nothing. To describe him simply as zealous, would be to
fall very short of his merits. The interests of his clients were his
own interests, and the legal rights of the properties of which he had
the legal charge, were as dear to him as his own blood. But it could
not be said of him that he was a learned lawyer. Perhaps in that
branch of a solicitor's profession in which he had been called upon
to work, experience goes further than learning. It may be doubted,
indeed, whether it is not so in every branch of every profession. But
it might, perhaps, have been better for Mr. Camperdown had he devoted
more hours of his youth to reading books on conveyancing. He was now
too old for such studies, and could trust only to the reading of
other people. The reading, however, of other people was always at his
command, and his clients were rich men who did not mind paying for
an opinion. To have an opinion from Mr. Dove, or some other learned
gentleman, was the every-day practice of his life; and when he
obtained, as he often did, little coigns of legal vantage and subtle
definitions as to property which were comfortable to him, he would
rejoice to think that he could always have a Dove at his hand to
tell him exactly how far he was justified in going in defence of his
clients' interests. But now there had come to him no comfort from his
corner of legal knowledge. Mr. Dove had taken extraordinary pains in
the matter, and had simply succeeded in throwing over his employer.
"A necklace can't be an heirloom!" said Mr. Camperdown to himself,
telling off on his fingers half-a-dozen instances in which he had
either known or had heard that the head of a family had so arranged
the future possession of the family jewels. Then he again read Mr.
Dove's opinion, and actually took a law-book off his shelves with the
view of testing the correctness of the barrister in reference to some
special assertion. A pot or a pan might be an heirloom, but not a
necklace! Mr. Camperdown could hardly br