What "just" the irate dame would have done, words failed her to express, but judging from Hannah's gestures it was something that would not have improved Nehemiah's personal appearance. But the negotiations with that gentleman which Mr. Sykes opened up did not promise to bear immediate fruit. It is possible that Mr. Wimpenny saw everything to be gained and nothing to be lost--by himself--in the sweetness long drawn out of proceedings in Chancery. The defendant's overtures were not met in a conciliatory spirit, and Sykes advised that nothing further should be attempted in that direction. Tom felt that he could do no more, and when he told Dorothy the steps he had taken to fulfil the promise she had wrung from him, Dorothy expressed herself content. "You can hold out till May 21st?" She only asked. "Oh, dear me, yes. From what I can judge when a lawyer in a Chancery suit contemplates a move in the proceedings, he takes a month to think it over, then he takes counsel's opinion, then he takes another month to think over counsel's opinion, then he rests for a month to recuperate his energies after their unwonted strain, then he writes to his London agent indicating the step he wishes to be taken, the agent takes a month to think over his principal's letter, and another month to reply to it, and at the end of all the country solicitor changes his mind, and the process circumbendibus begins _de novo_." "You ought to have been a lawyer, Tom," commented Lucy. "You have been thinking over a certain step to my knowledge for more than twelve months, and you haven't taken it yet." "And what's that, Lucy?" asked Dorothy. "Oh! you'll know soon enough when he takes it," was the most explicit answer that Dorothy could obtain, and with that she had to be content. "I wonder why Dorothy mentioned the twenty-first of May next?" asked Tom of Lucy, when they were alone together. "Why she comes of age then, stupid," said Lucy, as shortly as ever she was known to speak.