“I should think the word itself would do that, sir. You know how it is in the country. Half a dozen beds are put in the same room, and two in a bed. Waal, imagine three or four jurors in one of these rooms, and two chaps along with ’em, with instructions how to talk. The conversation is the most innocent and nat’ral in the world; not a word too much or too little; but it sticks like a bur. The juror is a plain, simple-minded countryman, and swallows all that his room-mates say, and goes into the box next day in a beautiful frame of mind to listen to reason and evidence! No, no; give me two or three of these pillow-counsellors, and I’ll undo all that the journals can do, in a single conversation. You’ll remember, ’Squire, that we get the last word by this system; and if the first blow is half the battle in war, the last word is another half in the law. Oh! it’s a beautiful business, is this trial by jury.”
“All this is very wrong, Timms. For a long time I have known that you have exercised an extraordinary influence over the jurors of Duke’s; but this is the first occasion on which you have been frank enough to reveal the process.”
“Because this is the first occasion on which we have ever had a capital case together. In the present state of public opinion in Duke’s, I much question whether we can get a jury empannelled in this trial at all.”
“The Supreme Court will then send us to town, by way of mending the matter. Apropos, Timms——”
“One word if you please, ’Squire; what does à propos really mean? I hear it almost every day, but never yet knew the meaning.”
“It has shades of difference in its signification—as I just used it, it means ‘speaking of that.’”
“And is it right to say à propos to such a thing?”
“It is better to say à propos of, as the French do. In old English it was always to; but in our later mode of speaking, we say ‘of.’”
“Thank you, sir. You know how I glean my knowledge in driblets; and out in the country not always from the highest authorities. Plain and uncouth as I know I appear to you, and to Miss Sarah, I have an ambition to be a gentleman. Now, I have observation enough to see that it is these little matters, after all, and not riches and fine clothes, that make gentlemen and ladies.”
“I am glad you have so much discrimination, Timms; but, you must permit me to remark, that you will never make a gentleman until you learn to let your nose alone.”