was lost, unless some
extraordinary good fortune should yet befall them. They were not long in
establishing the descent of Mr. Aubrey from Geoffrey Dreddlington. It
was necessary to do so; for grievously as they had been disappointed in
failing to establish the title paramount, founded upon the deed of
confirmation of Mr. Aubrey, it was yet an important question for the
jury, whether they believed the evidence adduced by the plaintiff to
show title in himself.

"That, my Lord, is the defendant's case," said the Attorney-General as
his last witness left the box; and Mr. Subtle then rose to reply. He
felt how unpopular was his cause; that almost every countenance around
him bore a hostile expression. Privately, he loathed his case, when he
saw the sort of person for whom he was struggling. All his sympathies
(he was a very proud, haughty man) were on behalf of Mr. Aubrey, whom by
name and reputation he well knew, and with whom he had often sat in the
House of Commons. Now, conspicuous before him, sat his little
monkey-client, Titmouse--a ridiculous object; and calculated, if there
were any scope for the influence of prejudice, to ruin his own cause by
the exhibition of himself before the jury. That was the vulgar idiot who
was to turn the admirable Aubreys out of Yatton, and send them beggared
into the world! But Mr. Subtle was a high-minded English advocate; and
if he had seen Miss Aubrey in all her loveliness, and knew that her
_all_ depended upon the success of his exertions, he could hardly have
exerted himself more strenuously than he did on the present occasion.
And such, at length, was the effect which that exquisitely skilful
advocate produced, in his address to the jury, that he began to bring
about a change in the feelings of most around him; even the eye of
scornful beauty began to direct fewer glances of indignation and disgust
upon Titmouse, as Mr. Subtle's irresistible rhetoric drew upon their
sympathies in that young gentleman's behalf. "My learned friend, the
Attorney-General, gentlemen, dropped one or two expressions of a
somewhat disparaging tendency," said Mr. Subtle, "in alluding to my
client, Mr. Titmouse; and shadowed forth a disadvantageous contrast
between the obscure and ignorant plaintiff, and the gifted defendant.
Good heavens, gentlemen! and is my humble client's misfortune to become
his fault? If he be obscure and ignorant, unacquainted with the usages
of society, deprived of the blessings of