"That, Mr. Aubrey," said Mr. Parkinson, earnestly, "remains to be proved! We really are getting on far too fast. A person who heard us might suppose that the jury had already returned a verdict against us--that judgment had been signed--and that the sheriff was coming in the morning to execute the writ of possession in favor of our opponent." This was well meant by the speaker; but surely it was like talking of the machinery of the ghastly guillotine to the wretch in shivering expectation of suffering by it on the morrow. An involuntary shudder ran through Mr. Aubrey. "Sixty thousand pounds!" he exclaimed, rising and walking to and fro. "Why, I am ruined beyond all redemption! How can I ever satisfy it?" Again he paced the room several times, in silent agony. Presently he resumed his seat. "I have, for these several days past, had a strange sense of impending calamity," said he, more calmly--"I have been equally unable to account for, or get rid of it. It may be an intimation from Heaven; I bow to its will!" "We must remember," said Mr. Runnington, "that '_possession is nine-tenths of the law_;' which means, that your mere possession will entitle you to retain it against all the world, till a stronger title than yours to the right of possession be made out. You stand on a mountain; and it is for your adversary to displace you, not by showing merely that you have no real title, but that _he has_. If he could prove all your title-deeds to be merely waste paper--that in fact you have no more title to Yatton than I have--he would not, if he were to stop there, have advanced his own case an inch; he must _first_ establish in himself a clear and independent title; so that you are entirely on the defensive; and rely upon it, that though never so many screws may be loose, so acute and profound a lawyer as the Attorney-General will impose every difficulty on our opponents"---- "Nay, but God forbid that any unconscientious advantage should be taken on my behalf!" said Mr. Aubrey. Mr. Runnington and Mr. Parkinson both opened their eyes pretty wide at this sally; the latter could not at first understand why _everything_ should not be fair in war; the former saw and appreciated the nobility of soul which had dictated the exclamation. "I suppose the affair will soon become public," said Mr. Aubrey, with an air of profound depression, after much further conversation. "Your position in the county, your eminence in public life, the singularity of the case, and the magnitude of the stake--all are circumstances undoubtedly calculated soon to urge the affair before the notice of the public," said Mr. Runnington. "What disastrous intelligence to break to my family!" exclaimed Mr. Aubrey, tremulously. "With what fearful suddenness it has burst upon us! But something, I suppose," he presently added with forced calmness, "must be done immediately?"