ess Pennyquick shed a plenitude of tears, and I had a
monstrous lump in my throat that threatened to choke me if I tried
to speak. With a discretion that raised him mightily in Becky's
esteem, Mr. Vetch fell behind, leaving us two together; and so with
full hearts we took the road, going into our new life hand in hand.

Chapter 7: A Crown Piece.

This turn in our affairs was a nine days' wonder in Shrewsbury. And
whether it was that some chord of sympathy was touched in our
townsfolk, or that Mr. Vetch worsted his only rival, Mr. Moggridge,
in a case of breach of covenant that was tried at the next assizes,
I know not; but certain it is that my friend's business took a leap
upward from that very time. Clients flocked to him; he soon had to
employ an additional clerk; and Mistress Pennyquick, who was twice
as tyrannical as before on the strength of her extra two pounds a
year, declared privately to me one day that she wished for nothing
now but that she might live to see me a partner with Mr. Vetch, in
a house of my own, with a sensible wife and five pretty children.

But I have come to believe that as an Ethiopian can not change his
skin, nor a leopard his spots, so a man can not alter the bent of
mind he was born with, nor follow any course with success but the
one to which his nature calls. I entered Mr. Vetch's office with
the best will in the world to please him, and to master the
principles of legal practice and procedure; but I found it hard to
reconcile myself to the atmosphere of a stuffy room filled with
musty tomes, and to the unvarying round of desk work--copying from
morning to night agreements, deeds and other documents bristling
with a jargon unintelligible to me.

I soon tired of freehold and copyhold tenure, of manorial rights
and customs, and the hundred and one legal fictions connected with
actions at law and bills in chancery that constitute the routine of
an attorney's profession. I yearned to breathe an ampler air; and
when one day I saw Dick Cludde, returned home on leave, strutting
past with Mytton and other boon companions, in all the bravery of
cocked hat, laced coat and buckled shoes, I flung down my pen and
donned my cap, and set off, with bitter rage and envy in my heart,
to pour out my soul to my constant friend, Captain Galsworthy.

"Halt!" cried the captain, when I was in the midst of a tirade.
"We'll have a bout."

And forthwith we donned the gloves, and for a full quarter of