were in a hurry for money, and they expected their clients never to be
in a hurry for work. Squercum was the very opposite to this. He had
established himself, without predecessors and without a partner, and
we may add without capital, at a little office in Fetter Lane, and had
there made a character for getting things done after a marvellous and
new fashion. And it was said of him that he was fairly honest, though
it must be owned that among the Bideawhiles of the profession this was
not the character which he bore. He did sharp things no doubt, and had
no hesitation in supporting the interests of sons against those of
their fathers. In more than one case he had computed for a young heir
the exact value of his share in a property as compared to that of his
father, and had come into hostile contact with many family
Bideawhiles. He had been closely watched. There were some who, no
doubt, would have liked to crush a man who was at once so clever, and
so pestilential. But he had not as yet been crushed, and had become
quite in vogue with elder sons. Some three years since his name had
been mentioned to Dolly by a friend who had for years been at war with
his father, and Squercum had been quite a comfort to Dolly.

He was a mean-looking little man, not yet above forty, who always wore
a stiff light-coloured cotton cravat, an old dress coat, a coloured
dingy waistcoat, and light trousers of some hue different from his
waistcoat. He generally had on dirty shoes and gaiters. He was
light-haired, with light whiskers, with putty-formed features, a squat
nose, a large mouth, and very bright blue eyes. He looked as unlike
the normal Bideawhile of the profession as a man could be; and it must
be owned, though an attorney, would hardly have been taken for a
gentleman from his personal appearance. He was very quick, and active
in his motions, absolutely doing his law work himself, and trusting to
his three or four juvenile clerks for little more than scrivener's
labour. He seldom or never came to his office on a Saturday, and many
among his enemies said that he was a Jew. What evil will not a rival
say to stop the flow of grist to the mill of the hated one? But this
report Squercum rather liked, and assisted. They who knew the inner
life of the little man declared that he kept a horse and hunted down
in Essex on Saturday, doing a bit of gardening in the summer months;--
and they said also that he made up for this by working hard all