“To Messrs. Scamp and Vamp.--_I hereby agree to purchase one copy
of your ‘Pillars of the Law from the Earliest Ages,’ profusely
illustrated, in one hundred and fifty-seven monthly parts, at seven
shillings and sixpence a part. I further agree to pay for this work
annually, at the rate of twelve parts in advance._”
There was a solemn and awful pause. Then I drew myself up to my full
height, and in a voice of thunder _ordered him out_! I know not _how_
he disappeared--in a moment he had vanished, portfolio and all!
Rather fatigued after my late exertions, I called to my clerk, and with
weary haughtiness desired him to bring me my brief, as I wished to
“glance through the papers.”
“Your brief, sir?” he returned. “Oh, I should have told you, sir, that,
while you were talking to the man with the engravings, they called to
see you. They said they were in a hurry, and as you were engaged, they
would take it to some one else.”
“Take it to some one else!” My maiden brief!
At this point I must pause--for the moment, I can write no more!