'Well, the position is that, in Banco Regis, the King is always present.'
'So says the law.'
'But the law, it appears, tells a lie; and, from all that I have heard, I wish it were the only one that it told.'
'Could the law hear, sir, it would take very grave offence at your language. It only assumes a fiction.'
'John Doe and Richard Roe, who are the pledges of prosecution, are two more of its supposes, or lies. I beg pardon. I should have said fictions.'
'Why, yes: considering that John Doe and Richard Roe never made their personal appearance in any court in the kingdom, were never once met, in house, street, or field, in public, or in private, nay had never yet the good luck to be born, they have really done a deal of business.'
'They resemble Legion, entering the swine: they plunge whole herds into the depths of destruction.'
'Or, if you will, they are a kind of real yet invisible hob-goblins: by whom every human being is liable to be haunted. It must however be allowed of them that they are a pair of very active and convenient persons.'
'To lawyers. But God help the rest of mankind! Are there many of these fictions?'
'More than I or any man, I believe, can at one time remember.'