Leaving Mr. Roundjacket contemplating the ceiling, and reflecting upon the various questions connected with bachelorship and matrimony, Verty returned to the office, and reported to Mr. Rushton that the poet was rapidly improving, and would probably be at his post on the morrow. This intelligence was received with a growl, which had become, however, so familiar an expression of feeling to the young man, that he did not regard it. "Well, sir," said Mr. Rushton, "what news is there about town?" "News, sir? I heard none." "Did'nt you pass along the streets?" "Yes, sir." "And you met nobody?" "Oh, yes; I met Ralph, and Mr. Jinks, and others." "Jinks! I'll score that Jinks yet!" said Mr. Rushton; "he is an impertinent jackanapes, and deserves to be put in the stocks." "I don't like him much," said Verty, smiling, "I think he is very foolish." "Hum! I have no doubt of it: he had the audacity to come here once and ask an _opinion_ of me without offering the least fee." "An opinion, sir?" "Yes, sir; have you been thus long in the profession, or in contact with the profession," added Mr. Rushton, correcting himself, "without learning what an _opinion_ is?" "Oh, sir--I think I understand now--it is--" "A very gratifying circumstance that you do," said Mr. Rushton, with the air of a good-natured grizzly bear. "Well, sir, that fellow, I say, had the audacity to consult me upon a legal point--whether the tailor O'Brallaghan, being bound over to keep the peace, could attack him without forfeiting his recognizances--that villain Jinks, I say, had the outrageous audacity to ask my opinion on this point, and then when I gave it, to rise and say that it was a fine morning, and so strut out, without another word. A villain, sir! the man who consults a lawyer without the preparatory retainer, is a wretch too deep-dyed to reform!" Having thus disposed of Jinks, Mr. Rushton snorted. "I don't like him," Verty said, "he does not seem to be sincere, and I think he is not a gentleman. But, I forget, sir; you asked me if there was any news. I _did_ hear some people talking at the corners of the street as I passed. "About what?" "The turn out of the Dutch and Irish people the day after tomorrow, sir." "Hum!" growled Mr. Rushton, "we'll see about that! The authorities of Winchester are performing their duty after a pretty fashion, truly--to permit these villainous plots to be hatched tinder their very noses. What did you hear, sir?" "They were whispering almost, sir, and if I had'nt been a hunter I could'nt have heard. They were saying that there would be knives as well as shillalies," said Verty. "Hum! indeed! This must be looked to! Will we! The wretches. We are in a fine way when the public peace is to be sacrificed to the whim of some outlandish wretches." "Anan?" said Verty. "Sir?" asked Mr. Rushton. "I do not know exactly what _outlandish_ means," Verty replied, with a smile. A grim smile came to the lips of the lawyer also.