"Have you made him acquainted with its contents?"
"I have dropped no hint to him of its existence."
"I have no pretensions to knowledge of the law of libel, but it is pretty clear that no action can be brought against the man who wrote that letter. With you the case is different. It was written, I presume, in confidence to you. If you bring it to the notice of anybody else you make yourself responsible for the statements it contains--you publish them. If you call my honour in question by publishing such a farrago of lies about me I will first of all thrash you, as they have it, to within an inch of your life, and then, if needs be, I will spend my last penny in calling you to account in a court of law. You shall not shelter yourself behind a dead man."
"You use strong language, Mr. Elmore."
"Could I use stronger language than that letter?"
"I understand that you deny the statements it contains?"
"Do I understand that you associate yourself with your correspondent so far as to require a denial?"
"You misapprehend the situation; whether wilfully or not I don't know. I have no personal concern in this matter at all; eliminate that idea from your mind. Graham Patterson was my client living; in a sense he is still my client dead. I have no option but to continue to do my duty to him without fear or favour."
"I presume in return for a certain fee, Mr. Wilkes?"
"You forget yourself, sir."