‘Because, if effect is the consequence of cause, and if cause does precede effect, I apprehend you are wrong,’ added Horatio.
‘Decidedly,’ said the toad-eating Flamwell.
‘At least, I apprehend that to be the just and logical deduction?’ said Sparkins, in a tone of interrogation.
‘No doubt of it,’ chimed in Flamwell again. ‘It settles the point.’
‘Well, perhaps it does,’ said Mr. Frederick; ‘I didn’t see it before.’
‘I don’t exactly see it now,’ thought the grocer; ‘but I suppose it’s all right.’
‘How wonderfully clever he is!’ whispered Mrs. Malderton to her daughters, as they retired to the drawing-room.
‘Oh, he’s quite a love!’ said both the young ladies together; ‘he talks like an oracle. He must have seen a great deal of life.’
The gentlemen being left to themselves, a pause ensued, during which everybody looked very grave, as if they were quite overcome by the profound nature of the previous discussion. Flamwell, who had made up his mind to find out who and what Mr. Horatio Sparkins really was, first broke silence.
‘Excuse me, sir,’ said that distinguished personage, ‘I presume you have studied for the bar? I thought of entering once, myself—indeed, I’m rather intimate with some of the highest ornaments of that distinguished profession.’