His expenses, I say, reached exactly L5 3_s_. But he had a right to go to Dondale's if he pleased, instead of that cheap hostelry near Covent Garden. He had a right to a handsome lunch and a handsome dinner, instead of that economical fusion of both meals into one, at a cheap eating-house, in an out-of-the-way quarter. He had a right to his pint of high-priced wine, and to accomplish his wanderings in a cab, instead of, as the Italians say, 'partly on foot, and partly walking.' Therefore, and on this principle, Mr. Jos. Larkin had 'no difficulty' in acting. His savings, if the good man chose to practise self-denial, were his own--and it was a sort of problem while he stayed, and interested him curiously--keeping down his bill in matters which he would not have dreamed of denying himself at home. The only client among his wealthy supporters, who ever went in a grudging spirit into one of these little bills of Jos. Larkin's, was old Sir Mulgrave Bracton--the defunct parent of the Sir Harry, with whom we are acquainted. 'Don't you think, Mr. Larkin, you could perhaps reduce _this_, just a little?' 'Ah, the expenses?' 'Well, yes.' Mr. Jos. Larkin smiled--the smile said plainly, 'what would he have me live upon, and where?' We do meet persons of this sort, who would fain 'fill our bellies with the husks' that swine digest; what of that--we must remember who we are--_gentlemen_--and answer this sort of shabbiness, and every other endurable annoyance, as Lord Chesterfield did--with a bow and a smile. 'I think so,' said the baronet, in a bluff, firm way. 'Well, the fact is, when I represent a client, Sir Mulgrave Bracton, of a certain rank and position, I make it a principle--and, as a man of business, I find it tells--to present myself in a style that is suitably handsome.' 'Oh! an expensive house--_where_ was this, now?' 'Oh, Sir Mulgrave, pray don't think of it--I'm only too happy--pray, draw your pen across the entire thing.' 'I think so,' said the baronet unexpectedly. 'Don't you think if we said a pound a-day, and your travelling expenses?' 'Certainly--_any_thing--what_ever_ you please, Sir.' And the attorney waved his long hand a little, and smiled almost compassionately; and the little alteration was made, and henceforward he spoke of Sir Mulgrave as not quite a pleasant man to deal with in money matters; and his confidential friends knew that in a transaction in which he had paid money out of his own pocket for Sir Mulgrave he had never got back more than seven and sixpence in the pound; and, what made it worse, it was a matter connected with the death of poor Lady Bracton! And he never lost an opportunity of conveying his opinion of Sir Mulgrave, sometimes in distinct and confidential sentences, and sometimes only by a sad shake of his head, or by awfully declining to speak upon the subject.