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CHAPTER V.

"Si quid fecimus, certe irati non fecimus."-IV TUSċ., 5},

CLOSE, but silent observation of the manners of a new client, is productive of much convenience in our future intercourse with him. Some men lay themselves bare at once, in their impetuous exposure of their injuries and grievances: they rush into your office, agitated, excited, and breathless with impatience, to find not merely an adviser, but a ready listener. Attention must be profound, but credulity scarce; never believe above half of what an angry client may say, but most patiently endure the whole of it. Mr. Wilson, a merchant of great respectability, one day entered my room, accompanied by his senior clerk, who usually attended him as a sort of peripatetic day-book. His face betrayed an irritated mind; and he seated himself in silence, half afraid of trusting himself to speak on the subject on which he had called to consult me:

after a minute's pause his clerk came to his assistance.

"Mr. Wilson has called on you, Mr. Sharpe, to mention-"

"Be silent, Taylor, I can speak for myself, I suppose.

"I beg pardon, Sir, but I thought—”

"What business have you to think? Attend to your own affairs, Sir."

The clerk was silenced; but Wilson still hesitated, cleared his throat, and began. "'Tis very unpleasant, Mr. Sharpe-" He paused again, again coughed, and once more made a futile attempt. "'Tis really painful, Sir, when a gentleman who has for forty years-" He could not get further.

"Forty-one years last Michaelmas," interposed Mr. Taylor.

"You are right, Taylor; forty-one years ago, did I" and then, after another momentary pause, "and now to come to this!" I thought it must be commercial failure, or something nearly as awful; but I wisely held my peace.

"Would you believe it, Sir? it is not an hour since that villain, that dastardly villain, called me a swindler, Sir."

He almost choked in the utterance, and to protect myself from a smile, I affected surprise. "You a swindler, Mr. Wilson!"

"He did indeed, Sir: he called me, Sir, a swindler-a swindler! and on 'Change too!" "A dirty swindler," interposed Taylor.

"Be silent, or I'll break your head, blockhead! he called me a swindler, I tell you, Mr. Sharpe."

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"Dirty," whispered Taylor again.' "Another word, you scoundrel, and you shall eat it."

"How did it happen, Mr. Wilson?" "I went on 'Change at four, Sir—” "Ten minutes to four by our clock," observed Taylor, with provoking punctuality.

"I tell you it was four, Sir! Don't heed that booby: at four o'clock exactly I went on 'Change: it is always my custom."

"Except on Saturdays," interjected Taylor. "I haven't missed three Saturdays this twelvemonth, jackanapes."

"Ramsgate excepted," rejoined Taylor, still correcting him.

"And didn't I go to Ramsgate for health, Sir? Is a man of my years to die on 'Change?"

"You always said you would die at the desk, Sir?"

"And mayn't I die where I please, Sir?"

"But the affair on 'Change, Mr. Wilson. I think you had better not interrupt your employer, Mr. Taylor."

"You are right, Sir; he is always interrupting me: where did I leave off, Taylor?”

"At 'dirty swindler,' Sir."

"You lie, rascal, you lie! he did not say 'dirty' bad enough as 'twas, he never said 'dirty." "

"It is not material, Mr. Wilson; 'swindler' is the actionable word."

"It is actionable then? thank you, Sir; thank you twenty times, Mr. Sharpe: that's all I wanted to know."

"Beg pardon," began Taylor; "you wanted to know if 'cheat' and 'blackguard' were actionable too."

"Did he use all these coarse epithets, Mr. Wilson? It would not have been exactly legal, but I think, in your place, I should have knocked him down."

But Wilson turned again on his unlucky clerk; and I almost feared he was about to

begin the knocking-down system before my face: he raised his umbrella, and shaking it violently, swore he would break every bone in his skin, if he presumed to open his lips again, and then turned to me.

"He called me swindler, Sir, and nothing else; but that's enough for me, you say it is actionable, and I'll proceed, or my name is not Wilson! He disgraced me before all 'Change, the infamous villain; but thank heaven, I did not knock him down: bring the action, Sir, immediately; retain Scarlett, retain the Attorney-General, retain Gurney, Brougham, and all of them. I'll have the whole bar, Sir; fortyone years have I imported from the Baltic, and never was called 'swindler' before!"

"You forget Lloyd's in the panic," observed the accurate clerk.

"I forget nothing, Sir; I never forgot any thing in my life, Mr. Make-mischief!"

"And that job about the bark Sally," again said Taylor.

"Say another word, Sir! say another word, that's all! say only one more word, Mr. Taylor! only speak again, Mr. Taylor! one more word, Sir, and-"

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