"Will it be troubling you too much," asked the gentleman, with irritating insolence, "to ask you to name that word?"
"Not at all. As a lawyer--as I understand from this lady's remarks you are--you will appreciate its worth. Possession."
The discordant chord between these men had been struck very effectually.
"You are acquainted with the law," observed the gentleman, implying what it was impossible to misunderstand--to wit, that Seth Dumbrick was acquainted with the law in a way not creditable to himself.
"I know nothing of it from experience."
"Yet you know something of the machinery."
"From observation and general reading."
"Indeed! You set up for a scholar!"
"I do not."
"Would possession hold good," inquired the lady, with careless condescension, "against a rightful owner?"