So ended my conference with my cousin. I had made it a rule, however, never to believe above one half of what Miss Mary Muggerland said; and, upon the whole, I am inclined to think that was a most liberal allowance of credulity. A young lady is not always the safest depositary of such secrets, or the wisest and most sound adviser. A little spice of spite is usually intermingled with her counsels; and I doubt whether in one case out of ten they sincerely wish success to their simple and confiding clients. On one point, however, I was inclined to think her right. Edith certainly had a decided military bias.
I begin to hold the doctrine that there is more in judicial astrology than most people are inclined to admit. To what other mysterious fount than the stars can we trace that extraordinary principle which regulates men in the choice of their different professions? Take half-a-dozen lads of the same standing and calibre; give them the same education; inculcate them with the same doctrines; teach them the identical catechism; and yet you will find that in this matter of profession there is not the slightest cohesion among them. Had I been born under the influence of Mars, I too might have been a dragoon—as it was, Saturn, my planetary godfather, had devoted me to the law, and here I stood a discomfited concocter of processes, and a botcher of deeds and titles. Pondering these things deeply, I made my way to the Parliament-House, then in the full hum attendant upon the close of the Session. The usual groups of the briefless were gathered around the stoves. As I happened to have a paper in my hand, I was instantly assailed by half-a-dozen unemployed advocates.
“Hallo, M’Whirter, my fine fellow—d’ye want a counsel? Set you down cheap at a condescendence,” cried Mr Anthony Whaup, a tall barrister of considerable facetiousness.
“I say, M’Whirter, is it a semiplena? Hand it over to Randolph; he has lots of experience in that line.”
“Get out, you heretical humbug! Never mind these fellows, George. Tip, and I’m your man,” said Randolph.
“Can anybody tell me who is pleading before the Second Division just now?” asked a youth, looking rather white in the gills.
“Old Windlass. He’s good for three quarters of an hour at least, and then the judges have to give their opinions.”
“I’m devilish glad to hear it. I think I shall bolt. This seems a fine afternoon. Who’s for Musselburgh?”
“I can’t go to-day,” said Whaup. “I was tempted yesterday with a shilling, and sold myself.”