“What is your business?”
“Attending bar,” I meekly replied.
“Attending bar!” he echoed, with an appearance of much surprise; “Attending bar! Why, don’t you profess to be a temperance man—a teetotaler?”
“I do,” I replied.
“And yet, sir, do you have the audacity to assert that you peddle rum all day, and drink none yourself?”
“I doubt whether that is a relevant question,” I said in a low tone of voice.
“I will appeal to his honor the judge, if you don’t answer it instantly,” said Quilp in great glee.
“I attend bar, and yet never drink intoxicating liquors,” I replied.
“Where do you attend bar, and for whom?” was the next question.
“I attend the bar of this court, nearly every day, for the benefit of two-penny, would-be lawyers and their greedy clients,” I answered.