“Pshaw! I know better than that myself, ’Squire. Their Upper Ten should be upper one, or two, to be common sense. Rude and untaught as I was until you took me by the hand, sir, I can tell the difference between those who wear kids, and ride in their coaches, and those who are fit for either. Our client has none of this, sir; and that it is which surprises me. She has no Union Place, or Fifth Avenue, about her; but is the true coin. There is one thing in particular that I’m afraid may do her harm.” “It is the true coin which usually passes with the least trouble from hand to hand. But what is this particular source of uneasiness?” “Why, the client has a lady-friend——” A little exclamation from Dunscomb caused the speaker to pause, while the counsellor removed the segar from his mouth, knocked off its ashes, and appeared to ponder for a moment, touching the best manner of treating a somewhat delicate subject. At length, native frankness overcame all scruples, and he spoke plainly, or as the familiar instructor might be expected to address a very green pupil. “If you love me, Timms, never repeat that diabolical phrase again,” said Dunscomb, looking quite serious, however much there might have been of affectation in his aspect. “It is even worse than Hurlgate, which I have told you fifty times I cannot endure. ‘Lady friend’ is infernally vulgar, and I _will_ not stand it. You may blow your nose with your fingers, if it give you especial satisfaction, and you may blow out against aristocracy as much as you please; but you shall not talk to me about ‘lady-friends’ or ‘Hurlgate.’ I am no dandy, but a respectable elderly gentleman, who professes to speak English, and who wishes to be addressed in his own language. Heaven knows what the country is coming to! There is Webster, to begin with, cramming a Yankee dialect down our throats for good English; then comes all the cant of the day, flourishing finical phrases, and new significations to good old homely words, and changing the very nature of mankind by means of terms. Last of all, is this infernal Code, in which the ideas are as bad as possible, and the terms still worse. But whom do you mean by your ‘lady-friend?’” “The French lady that has been with our client, now, for a fortnight. Depend on it, _she_ will do us no good when we are on. She is too aristocratic altogether.” Dunscomb laughed outright. Then he passed a hand across his brow, and seemed to muse. “All this is very serious,” he at length replied, “and is really no laughing matter. A pretty pass are we coming to, if the administration of the law is to be influenced by such things as these! The doctrine is openly held that the rich shall not, ought not to embellish their amusements at a cost that the poor cannot compass; and here we have a member of the bar telling us a prisoner shall not have justice because she has a foreign maid-servant!”