to throw the dust in his eyes, In divers other ways Mr. Gubbins was of very great utility over and above his specific function as a scribe, and of his real value none was more accurately aware than Mr. Clincher.

CHAPTER X.

"He accepted an invitation from his old friend, the Man in Black, to sup there, and at the appointed hour waited on him."

CITIZEN OF THE WORLD. LETTER LXXI

WHENEVER a knock was heard at the outer door, Mr. Gubbins did not descend from his elevated throne, and thus trouble himself by walking out of his cage and over the floor -it was his custom to raise his shrill voice and bid the applicant for legal wisdom walk in. If it were convenient for Mr. Clincher to be absent, he, of course, was absent, and contrariwise. When Captain De Bohun entered, Gabriel was very busily

employed in engrossing the conveyance deed of certain lands purchased by a Cheapside haberdasher, who was about to renounce the vulgarity of trade, and, in old age, retire to his tusculum in Surrey. The engrosser was so intent upon his task, that after having ogled Godfrey through the railings, and put an interrogation or two to the client, he, without further comment, ushered him into his master's sanctuary, and resumed his occupation with an air of apparent indifference, as if the skin on which he was tracing sundry hieroglyphics absorbed every thought. Whether this marvellous assiduity resulted from fear of being benighted-whether he felt comfortably satisfied of his governor's capability of managing the client single-handed — or whether some other matter at this identical moment occupied his cogitations, it is here impossible to say; certain, however, that, like Corporal Trim with his story, Gabriel perseveringly endorsed on.

When the squire of Elleringay entered the inner-room nothing could exceed the cordiality of the stranger's welcome on the part of Mr. Gideon Clincher.

"Well, really, Captain De Bohun," said the man of law, rising from his seat and catching Godfrey's hand with a ready smile and honied accents-"well," repeated he, uncarting a chaotic mass of papers from a dusty chair, and pushing it towards the provincial-"Well, really I'm glad to see you -sit down, captain-do take a seat. And pray how are they all at Elleringay? I sincerely hope my esteemed friend Mrs. De Bohun and family are well."

All this was uttered in a cheerful tone of expression, so frankly, so ingenuously, and with such kindly feeling, that the client breathed more and more freely, and when he thought of the estate, he muttered, in consolation, "Non delenda est Carthago!"

It must be told the reader that this reception observed to Godfrey, was not the uniform manner in which the lawyer greeted his clients. His deportment was ordered by circumstances, different individuals required different treatment, the nice discrimination of which he averred could only be decided upon by a knowledge of human nature, in

which great wisdom he considered himself vastly endowed. When he did not recognise an old face, when it was not evident that the bland and civil were indicated, he put on another kind of front, would draw himself up, assume an air of professional dignity, and perchance speak in a language dictatorial and imperious. As to Captain De Bohun, he knew him to be a man of birth and standing, their transactions together had shown him to be not only proud, but shrewd and perceptive, hence he was to be received with an oleaginous tongue, hooked by the bait of flattery rather than scared into submission. Mr. Clincher had sufficient hold upon him, so that he might with impunity have put on the high and mighty; but this would not have displayed his vaunted knowledge of human nature.

They soon glided into a continual stream of conversation, and if Godfrey felt at the outset. like a young colt newly put in harness, he ere long warmed in his trappings, and proceeded more at his ease. Gideon set with attentive ear, as if conversant with the too frequently