“And I got to tak no trouble at all about un, but to keep my mouth shut till the case comes on, that’s what the pleeceman told I. I bean’t to talk about un, or to tak any money not to proserkit.”
“O dear, no,” said Mr. Prigg. “O dear, dear, no; you would be compounding a felony.” (Here Mr. Prigg made a note in his diary to this effect:—“Attending you at ‘The Goose’ at Westminster, when you informed me that you were the prosecutor in a case at the Old Bailey, and in which I advised you not, under any circumstances, to accept a compromise or money for the purpose of withdrawing from the prosecution, and strongly impressed upon you that such conduct would amount in law to a misdemeanor. Long conference with you thereon, when you promised to abide by my advice, £1 6s. 0d.”).
“Now,” said Bumpkin, “it seem to me that turn which way I wool, there be too much law, too many pitfalls; I be gettin’ sick on’t.”
“Well,” said Mr. Prigg, “we have only to do our duty in that station of life in which we are called, and we have no cause to fear. Now you know you would not have liked that unprincipled man, Snooks, to have the laugh of you, would you now?”
Mr. Bumpkin clenched his fist as he said, “Noa, I’d sooner lose every penny I got than thic there feller should ha’ the grin o’ me.”
“Quite so,” said the straightforward moralist. “Quite so! dear me! Well, well, I must wish you good morning, for really I am so overwhelmed with work that I hardly know which way to turn—bye, bye. I will take care to keep you posted up in—.” Here Mr. Prigg’s cab drove off, and I could not ascertain whether the posting up was to be in the state of the list or in the lawyer’s ledger.
“What a nice man!” said the landlady.
Yes, that was Mr. Prigg’s character, go where he would: “A nice man!”
CHAPTER XXIX.
The trial at the Old Bailey of Mr. Simple Simonman for highway robbery with violence—Mr. Alibi introduces himself to Mr. Bumpkin.