off duty, were such as to cause the good attorney, when complaints
reached him, to shake his head, and sigh profoundly, and sometimes to
lift up his mild eyes and long hands; and, indeed, so scandalous an
appendage was Buggs, that if he had been less useful, I believe the pure
attorney, who, in the uncomfortable words of John Bunyan, 'had found a
cleaner road to hell,' would have cashiered him long ago.

'There is that awful Mr. Buggs,' said Dolly, with a look of honest alarm.
'I often wonder so Christian a man as Mr. Larkin can countenance him. He
is hardly ever without a black eye. He has been three nights together
without once putting off his clothes--think of that; and, my dear, on
Friday week he fell through the window of the Fancy Emporium, at two
o'clock in the morning; and Doctor Buddle says if the cut on his jaw had
been half an inch lower, he would have cut some artery, and lost his
life--wretched man!'

'They have come about law business, Dolly!' enquired the young lady, who
had a profound, instinctive dread of Mr. Larkin.

'Yes, my dear; a most important windfall. Only for Mr. Larkin, it never
could have been accomplished, and, indeed, I don't think it would ever
have been thought of.'

'I hope he has some one to advise him,' said Miss Lake, anxiously. 'I--I
think Mr. Larkin a very cunning person; and you know your husband does
not understand business.'

'Is it Mr. Larkin, my dear? Mr. Larkin! Why, my dear, if you knew him as
we do, you'd trust your life in his hands.'