s.

He was, at the time I became acquainted with him, nearly seventy
years of age and his chief diversion was to sit in my office and
harangue me upon his grievances. Being a sort of sea-lawyer himself
he was forever devising quaint defences and strange reasons why he
should not pay his creditors; and he was ever ready to spend a
hundred dollars in lawyers' fees in order to save fifty. This is
the most desirable variety of client a lawyer can have.

One trifling weakness, common to mankind in general, gave him much
encouragement; for he soon discovered that, rather than incur the
trouble of hiring lawyers and going to court, his creditors would
usually compound with him for considerably less than their just
claims. This happened so frequently that he almost never paid a
bill in the first instance, with the natural result that those who
had sent him honest bills before, after one or two experiences with
him, made it a practice to add thirty per cent. or so to the total,
in order that they might later on gracefully reduce their demands
without loss. Thus my client, by his peevishness, actually created
the very condition regarding which, out of an overactive imagination,
he had complained originally without just cause.

It so happened that the first matter in which he required my services
was a dispute over a tailor's bill that he regarded as excessive.
He had ordered a pair of trousers without inquiring the price and
was shocked to discover that he had been charged three dollars more
than for his last pair. The tailor explained at great length that
the first had been summer weight and that these were winter weight;
but to no purpose.

"You think you can take advantage of me because I'm an old man!"
he shrieked in rage. "But you'll find out. Just wait until I see
my lawyer!"

So down he came to my office and fumed and chattered for an hour
or more about the extra three dollars on his trousers. If he had
been less abusive the tailor might have overlooked the matter; but
even a tailor has a soul, and this time the man swore to have the
law on his cantankerous customer.

"Fight to the last ditch!" shouted the old man. "Don't yield an
inch!"

A day or two later the tailor served my client, whose name was
Wimbleton, with a summons and complaint; and I was forced to put
in an answer, in which I took issue upon the reasonable value of
the trousers. By the time I had drawn the papers and listened to
my client'