the persevering man of words. "Whenever I take up a
deed, for instance,--it is just the habit of the thing, Mr S----,--I
always look at it as a banker looks at a note. He could not for the life
of him gather one up without first ascertaining that it was genuine."

"Genuine!" exclaimed my uncle, thrown off his guard. "You do not suspect
that I have forged it?"

"Forged it! why, how could that enter your head, Mr S----? I should as
soon suspect you of forging a bank-note or coining a guinea. Ringing a
guinea, sir, does not at all imply that the payee suspects the payer to
be an adept in that ingenious and much-abused art. We should be
prodigously surprised if the payer were to start up in a tantrum, and
say, 'Do you suspect me, sir, of having coined it?'"

"Sir, if you came hither for the purpose of insulting _me_"----

"I came upon no such business, Mr S----; but, as you seem disposed to be
captious, I _will_ make free to say, and it would be the opinion of
ninety-nine hundredths of the profession, that it might possibly have
been a little more satisfactory to the heir-apparent had the witnesses
to this, the most solemn and important act of a man's life, been any
other than, firstly, a defunct sister to the party claiming the whole
residue: and secondly, Mr Gilbert Hodgon, his servant. Nay, sir," said
the pertinacious lawyer, rising, "I do not wish to use more
circumlocution than is necessary; I have stated my suspicions, and if
you are an honest man, you can have no objections, at least, to satisfy
your nephew on the subject, who seems, to say the truth, much astonished
at our accidental parley."

"And pray who made you a ruler and a judge between us?"

"_I_ have no business with it, I own; but as you seemed rather angry, I
made bold to give an opinion on the little technicalities aforesaid. If
you choose, sir," addressing himself to me, "the matter is now at rest."

"Of course," I replied, "Mr S---- will be ready to give every
satisfaction that may be required as regards the validity of the
witnesses. I request, uncle, that you will not lose one moment in
rebutting these insinuations. For your own sake and mine, it is not
proper that your conduct should go forth to the world in the shape in
which this gentleman may think fit to represent it."

"If he dare speak one word"----

"Nay, uncle, that is not the way to stop folks' mouth now-a-days.
Nothing but the actual gag, or a line of conduct that courts no favou