"Steggars, you know--Gammon! You recollect Steggars, of course--eh?" inquired Mr. Quirk, with an apprehensive stare--"Steggars; _Steggars_--you know! eh? You don't recollect! Oh, botheration! Come, come, Gammon!" "Who is he?" again inquired Gammon, somewhat sternly. "Oh Lud! oh Lud! oh Lud!" exclaimed Mr. Quirk, despairingly--"What _are_ you after, Gammon? You don't intend--it can't be--that you're going to--eh?--It's Steggars, you know--we defended him, you know--and he got transported for embezzling that mortgage money of Mr. Parkinson's. You recollect how we got hold of Mr. Aubrey's story from him?" While Mr. Quirk was saying all this with feverish impetuosity, Mr. Gammon appeared to be, for the first time, glancing eagerly over the affidavits. "Why--good heavens, Mr. Quirk!" said he, presently, with a start--"is it possible that these statements can have the slightest foundation in fact?" "Ay, drat it--that _you_ know as well as I do, Gammon," replied Mr. Quirk, with not a little eagerness and trepidation--"Come, come, it's rather late in the day to sham Abraham just now, friend Gammon!" "Do you venture, Mr. Quirk, to stand there, and deliberately charge me with being a party to the grossly dishonorable conduct of which you are here accused upon oath--which, indeed, you admit yourself to have been guilty of?" "D----d if I don't, Master Gammon!" replied Mr. Quirk, slapping his hand on the table after a long pause, in which he looked completely confounded and aghast. "Why, you'll want, by-and-by, to persuade me that my name isn't Caleb Quirk--why, zounds! you'll drive me mad! You're gone mad yourself--you must be!" "How dare you insult me, sir, by charging me with conniving at your infamous and most unprofessional conduct?" "Why--come!" cried Quirk, with a horrible laugh--"You don't know how we first got scent of the whole thing?--Ah, ha! It dropped down from the clouds, I suppose, into our office--oh Lud, Lud, Gammon! it isn't kind to leave an old friend in the lurch at such a pinch as this!" "I tell you, Mr. Quirk, that I never had the least idea in the world that this wretch Steggars--Faugh! I should have scouted the whole thing! I would rather have retired from the firm!" "That's it, Gammon! Go on, Gammon! This is uncommonly funny! It is, indeed, aha!" quoth Quirk, trembling violently. "This is no time for trifling, sir, believe me. Let me tell you thus much, in all candor--that I certainly had, from the first, misgivings as to the means by which you became possessed of this information; but considering our relative situations, I did not feel myself at liberty to press you on the point--Oh, Mr. Quirk, I am really shocked beyond all bounds! What will the profession say of"-- "D---- the profession! What d'ye suppose I must be just now thinking of _you_? Why, you'd make a dog strike its father!"