“Why, then, that can be done away in a moment. Your name shall not appear in it at all. You have nothing to do but to make over the lease to me. I make all safe to you with my bond. Now, being in possession, I come forward in my own proper person. _Shall I proceed_?” “No—you have said enough,” replied Sir Arthur. “The case, indeed, lies in a nutshell,” said the attorney, who had by this time worked himself up to such a pitch of professional enthusiasm, that, intent upon his vision of a lawsuit, he totally forgot to observe the impression his words made upon Sir Arthur. “There’s only one thing we have forgotten all this time,” said Sir Arthur. “What can that be, sir?” “That we shall ruin this poor man.” Case was thunderstruck at these words, or rather, by the look which accompanied them. He recollected that he had laid himself open before he was sure of Sir Arthur’s _real_ character. He softened, and said he should have had certainly more _consideration_ in the case of any but a litigious, pig-headed fellow, as he knew Price to be. “If he be litigious,” said Sir Arthur, “I shall certainly be glad to get him fairly out of the parish as soon as possible. When you go home, you will be so good, sir, as to send me his lease, that I may satisfy myself before we stir in this business.” The attorney, brightening up, prepared to take leave; but he could not persuade himself to take his departure without making one push at Sir Arthur about the agency. “I will not trouble _you_, Sir Arthur, with this lease of Price’s,” said Case; “I’ll leave it with your agent. Whom shall I apply to?” “_To myself_, sir, if you please,” replied Sir Arthur. The courtiers of Louis the Fourteenth could not have looked more astounded than our attorney, when they received from their monarch a similar answer. It was this unexpected reply of Sir Arthur’s which had deranged the temper of Mr. Case, and caused his wig to stand so crooked upon his forehead, and which had rendered him impenetrably silent to his inquisitive daughter Barbara.