“And what did Tom say to it all?” asked Lucy.
“Tom! Aw’ve no patience wi’ Tom. He walked all th’ way whom as if he wer’ dreamin’, an’ all ’at aw could get out on him wer’ ’at pale blue went varry well wi some shades o’ yoller. He wer’ thinkin o’ his dyein’, yo’ see.”
“Was he for sure?” asked Mrs. Garside, “which dun yo’ think’s th’ blindest, Lucy, a bat or a mole?”
But Lucy was looking out of the window and answer made none.
CHAPTER IX.
NEHEMIAH WIMPENNY, of Holmfirth, “Gentleman, one of Her Majesty’s &c.,” in other words a solicitor, was the only legal practitioner in the village or neighbourhood, and though not more than thirty years of age, enjoyed a considerable practice. His father, Ebenezer, had been a successful manufacturer and a zealous Methodist. Presumably he believed that it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. Certainly he shared the common belief that lawyers are very scarce in the celestial regions. But these convictions did not deter him from storing up riches in this world, nor from bringing up his son to the legal profession. Perhaps he had confidence in the axiom that exceptions prove the rule.
Nehemiah was well cut-out for a country lawyer: he had the native shrewdness and common sense, and if he did not know much law he found common-sense a very good substitute for it. His local knowledge was like that of a historic character extensive and peculiar, and his father’s acquaintances and business connections who, at first from friendship, gave their business to young Nehemiah, had no reason to complain of lack of his attention to their interests or ability to protect them. In person he was of medium height, of sandy hair and pale complexion, with a cold and fishy eye and a cold and clammy hand. He dressed loudly and flashily, but as the extravagance of his raiment was attributed to a twelve months’ stay in London in the office of a town agent its fashion or propriety few questioned. He was fond of jewellery, and displayed a good deal of it on his person, and was supposed by envious young manufacturers and merchants to be a“devil among the women,”—a reputation of which he was not a little vain, and which he sustained by the amorous glances and doubles entendres of refreshment rooms and bars. He had spent a week in Paris, and hinted that he could an’ he would tell a thing or two about the iniquities of the gay city. This did not prevent Nehemiah from attending with laudable regularity at the Methodist Chapel, and anxious mammas with marriageable daughters, secure in the assurance that a reformed rake makes a very passable saint, viewed with complacency the attentions which it pleased this very common-place Lothario to pay to the virgins of their flock and fold; and the pastor of Zion Chapel himself, doubtless reflecting that he was sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, and to heal those that were sick and not those that were whole, was very tender indeed to a church-member who gave weekly signs of grace in the form of substantial contributions to the collection box, and whose quarterly pew-rent could always be depended on. It is only fair to Nehemiah to say that he never permitted his dissipations which were possibly much exaggerated, to interfere with business, and that, however deep his potations of the previous night, he was always to be found at his desk with a clear head and a steady hand, a circumstance, of itself, that secured Nehemiah more appreciation in a hard-drinking community, than would have been inspired by an intimate acquaintance with the whole corpus juris.
Among his clients Nehemiah numbered Mr. Jabez Tinker, and he was therefore not surprised when the master of Wilberlee presented himself in the small, dingy, stuffy office which Nehemiah found sufficient for his needs. Mr. Tinker, of course, was well aware of the somewhat dubious moral character of the gentleman he had come to consult; but then he did not go to Nehemiah for morals but for professional assistance.
“Well, Mr. Tinker, and how do you find yourself this morning—warm, isn’t it.”
“Very,” said Mr. Tinker—“it’s warm, and it’s close for the time of the year. But any sort of weather ’ll do for your kind of work, I guess, Wimpenny.”