ing miseries of her
life.

Chapter 13

The loss of Mr. Jerome as a client proved only the beginning of
annoyances to Dempster. That old gentleman had in him the vigorous
remnant of an energy and perseverance which had created his own fortune;
and being, as I have hinted, given to chewing the cud of a righteous
indignation with considerable relish, he was determined to carry on his
retributive war against the persecuting attorney. Having some influence
with Mr. Pryme, who was one of the most substantial rate-payers in the
neighbouring parish of Dingley, and who had himself a complex and
long-standing private account with Dempster, Mr. Jerome stirred up this
gentleman to an investigation of some suspicious points in the attorney's
conduct of the parish affairs. The natural consequence was a personal
quarrel between Dempster and Mr. Pryme; the client demanded his account,
and then followed the old story of an exorbitant lawyer's bill, with the
unpleasant anti-climax of taxing.

These disagreeables, extending over many months, ran along side by side
with the pressing business of Mr. Armstrong's lawsuit, which was
threatening to take a turn rather depreciatory of Dempster's professional
prevision; and it is not surprising that, being thus kept in a constant
state of irritated excitement about his own affairs, he had little time
for the further exhibition of his public spirit, or for rallying the
forlorn hope of sound churchmanship against cant and hypocrisy. Not a few
persons who had a grudge against him, began to remark, with satisfaction,
that 'Dempster's luck was forsaking him'; particularly Mrs. Linnet, who
thought she saw distinctly the gradual ripening of a providential scheme,
whereby a just retribution would be wrought on the man who had deprived
her of Pye's Croft. On the other hand, Dempster's well-satisfied clients.
who were of opinion that the punishment of his wickedness might
conveniently be deferred to another world, noticed with some concern that
he was drinking more than ever, and that both his temper and his driving
were becoming more furious. Unhappily those additional glasses of brandy,
that exasperation of loud-tongued abuse, had other effects than any that
entered into the contemplation of anxious clients: they were the little
super-added symbols that were perpetually raising the sum of home misery.

Poor Janet! how heavily the months rolled on for her, laden with fresh
sorrows as the summer