“Quite true. It is not _my_ retirement we have to discuss, but it is, whether I shall choose to hand you the Chief Baron's, which I hold here,”--and he produced the packet as he spoke,--“or go back and induce him to reconsider and withdraw it. Is not that a very intelligible way to put the case, Balfour? Did you expect such a business-like tone from an idle dog like _me?_” “And I am to believe that the document in your hand contains the Chief Baron's resignation?” “You are to believe it or not,--that's at your option. It is the fact, at all events.” “And what power have you to withhold it, when he has determined to tender it?” “About the same power I have to do this,” said Sewell, as, taking up a sheet of note-paper from the table, he tore it into fragments, and threw them into the fire. “I think you might see that the same influence by which I induced him to write this would serve to make him withhold it. The Judge condescends to think me a rather shrewd man of the world, and takes my advice occasionally.” “Well, but--another point,” broke in Balfour, hurriedly. “What if he should recall this to-morrow or the day after? What if he were to say that on reconsideration he felt unwilling to retire? It is clear we could not well coerce him.” “You know very little of the man when you suggest such a possibility. He 'd as soon think of suicide as doubt any decision he had once formally announced to the world. The last thing that would ever occur to him would be to disparage his infallibility.” “I declare I am quite ashamed of being away so long; could n't you come down to the office to-morrow, at your own hour, and talk the whole thing over quietly?” “Impossible. I 'll be very frank with you. I lost a pot of money last night to Langton, and have n't got it to pay him. I tried twenty places during the day, and failed. I tossed over a score of so-called securities, not worth sixpence in a time of pressure, and I came upon this, which has been in my hands since Monday last, and I thought, Now Balfour would n't exactly give me five hundred pounds for it, but there's no reason in life that he might not obtain that sum for me in some quarter. Do you see?” “I see,--that is, I see everything but the five hundred.” “If you don't, then you'll never see this,” said Sewell, replacing it in his pocket. “You won't comprehend that I've no fund to go to; that there 's no bank to back me through such a transaction. Just be a little reasonable, and you 'll see that I can't do this out of my own pocket. It is true I could press your claim on the party. I could say, what I am quite ready to say, that we owe the whole arrangement to _you_, and that, especially as it will cost you the loss of your Registrarship, you must not be forgotten.”