And so, arranging for an early meeting, they parted for the day.
Next morning, Eleanor told her husband of a curious dream she had had during the night. She thought she stood on a strange shore, with the sea spread out before her to the utmost horizon. It was sunrise, and coming towards her over the quiet waters, was a great ship—an ‘Argosy with golden sails’—and somehow she thought it brought golden treasure for her. Three times she dreamed the dream, and saw the stately ship. She asked Edgar what he thought of it. He said that dreams went by contraries.
(To be concluded next month.)
LEGAL ANECDOTES.
The writer remembers hearing of a gentleman who, not wishing to pay the legal and recognised fee for a consultation with his lawyer, devised an expedient whereby he expected to gain the information he required without the usual cost. He accordingly invited the man ‘learned in the law’ to dine at his house on a particular evening, as a friend and an old acquaintance. The lawyer gladly accepted the invitation, and attended at the house of his friend and client prompt to the minute. The conversation for some time was very general and agreeable, and by-and-by the shrewd client, by hinting and suggesting, at last drew the lawyer out into a learned and explicit dissertation upon the subject the host wished to be informed upon. The client was pleased, satisfied, and smiling, chuckled in his sleeve, thinking how nicely he had wormed out the advice desired and pumped his lawyer, free of cost!
The feast over, the lawyer departed, equally pleased, and both being satisfied, all went as merry as a marriage bell. But a few days afterwards, the client received a letter from his lawyer informing him that the charge for professional consultation and advice was thirteen shillings and fourpence, and would he ‘kindly attend to the payment of same at his earliest convenience, and oblige.’ The client was wild—caught in his own trap. But being determined to outwit the lawyer and gain his own ends, he forwarded to the latter a bill for ‘dinner, wines, and accessories supplied’ on the 16th inst., amounting to thirteen shillings and fourpence, saying that if he would settle the inclosed bill, he should only be too pleased and happy to settle the lawyer’s little bill. The lawyer retorted by threatening to commence an action against mine host for selling wines without a license, unless his, the lawyer’s, bill was immediately paid. Do I need to say that the lawyer was victorious?
When I was a boy, I heard of a lawyer who was called up in the middle of a cold winter’s night to draw out the will of an old farmer who lived some three miles away, and who was dying. The messenger had brought a cart to convey the lawyer to the farm; and the latter in due time arrived at his destination. When he entered the house, he was immediately ushered into the sickroom, and he then requested to be supplied with pen, ink, and paper. There were none in the house! The lawyer had not brought any himself, and what was he to do? Any lead-pencil? he inquired. No; they had none. The farmer was sinking fast, though quite conscious. At last, the legal gentleman saw chalked up on the back of the bedroom door column upon column of figures in chalk. These were milk ‘scores’ or ‘shots.’ He immediately asked for a piece of chalk, and then, kneeling on the floor, he wrote out concisely upon the smooth hearthstone the last will and testament of the dying man! The farmer subsequently died. The hearthstone will was sent to the principal registry in London with special affidavits, and was duly proved, the will being deposited in the archives of the registry. I may mention that the law does not state upon what substance or with what instrument a will must be written.
It is stated that a lawyer was some time ago cross-examining a witness in a local court, when he asked: ‘Now, then, Patrick, listen to me. Did the defendant in this case strike the plaintiff with malice?’—‘No, sor, sure,’ replied Pat gravely; ‘he struck him wid the poker, bedad.’ Again he inquired of the same witness: ‘Did the plaintiff stand on the defensive during the affray?’—‘Divil a diffinsive, yer honour; he stood on the table.’
A celebrity noted for being ‘a bit of a poet’ was brought up before a bench of local magistrates for an assault, when the following conversation took place: