"Oh, yes; I met Ralph, and Mr. Jinks, and others."
"Jinks! I'll score that Jinks yet!" said Mr. Rushton; "he is an impertinent jackanapes, and deserves to be put in the stocks."
"I don't like him much," said Verty, smiling, "I think he is very foolish."
"Hum! I have no doubt of it: he had the audacity to come here once and ask an opinion of me without offering the least fee."
"An opinion, sir?"
"Yes, sir; have you been thus long in the profession, or in contact with the profession," added Mr. Rushton, correcting himself, "without learning what an opinion is?"
"Oh, sir—I think I understand now—it is—"
"A very gratifying circumstance that you do," said Mr. Rushton, with the air of a good-natured grizzly bear. "Well, sir, that fellow, I say, had the audacity to consult me upon a legal point—whether the tailor O'Brallaghan, being bound over to keep the peace, could attack him without forfeiting his recognizances—that villain Jinks, I say, had the outrageous audacity to ask my opinion on this point, and then when I gave it, to rise and say that it was a fine morning, and so strut out, without another word. A villain, sir! the man who consults a lawyer without the preparatory retainer, is a wretch too deep-dyed to reform!"
Having thus disposed of Jinks, Mr. Rushton snorted.
"I don't like him," Verty said, "he does not seem to be sincere, and I think he is not a gentleman. But, I forget, sir; you asked me if there was any news. I did hear some people talking at the corners of the street as I passed.