al suggestions, my dear sir, are
often---- Now, for instance, in the brief I was alluding to, there was,
I recollect--one most--uncommonly acute suggestion"----

"Sir--you're uncommonly flattering! Am particularly obliged to you! May
I ask, what it was that struck you?"--inquired the attorney, briskly,
his countenance showing the progress of Hug's lubricating process.

"Oh--why--a--a--hem!" stammered Hug, somewhat nonplussed--(for his
little fiction had been accepted as a fact!) "No; it would hardly be
fair to Gobble, and I'm sorry indeed"----

"Well, well--it can't be helped _now_--but I must say that once or twice
latterly I've thought, myself, that Mr. Gobble has rather---- By the
way, Mr. Hug, shall you be in town this week, till the end of the
sessions?"

"Ye--e--s!" hastily whispered Hug, after glancing guiltily towards his
brethren, who, though they did not seem to do so, were really watching
him with ill-subdued fury.

"I'm happy to hear it!--You've heard of Aaron Doodle, who was committed
for that burglary at----? Well, I defend him, and shall be happy to give
you the brief. Do you lead Mr. Dolt?" Hug nodded. "Then he will be your
junior. Where are your chambers, Mr. Hug?"

"No. 4, Cant Court, Gray's Inn. When, my dear sir, does the case come
on?"

"Thursday--perhaps Wednesday."

"Then _do_ come and breakfast with me," quoth Hug, in a whisper--"and we
can talk it over, you know, so nicely together!"

"Sir, you're _very_ polite. I will do myself the pleasure"--replied Mr.
Flaw--- and good-naturedly took wine with Mr. Hug.

This little stroke of business over, the disengaged couple were at
liberty to attend to the general conversation of the table. Mr. Bluster
and Mr. Slang kept the company in almost a constant roar, with
descriptions of scenes in court, in which _they_ had, of course, been
the principal actors; and according to their own accounts they must have
been wonderful fellows. Such botherers of judges--particularly aldermen
and police magistrates!--Such bafflers and browbeaters of
witnesses!--Such bamboozlers of juries!

You should have seen the sneering countenance of Hug all the while. He
never once smiled or laughed at the brilliant sallies of his brethren,
and did his best to prevent his new patron, Mr. Flaw, from doing
so--constantly putting his hand before his mouth, and whispering into
Mr. Flaw's ear at the very point of the joke or story--and the smile
would disappear from the count