you'll lose him--sure to lose him."

Judging from Mr. Snooks' countenance it would have been small damage if
he did.

"Ve-ry well," continued Locust, after a pause, "ve-ry well--just so."
Then he looked at the copy of the writ and perceived that it was dated
eighteen hundred and ninety something instead of eighteen hundred and
seventy something. So he said that the writ was wrong and they ought not
to appear; "by which means," said he, "we shall let them in at the start
for a lot of costs--we shall let them in."

"And will that stash the action?" asked Snooks.

"It will not stash ours," said Locust. "I suppose you mean to go on
whether he does or not? Your claim is for assault and slander."

"As you please, sir."

"No, no, as you please. I have not been called a thief--they haven't
said that I sell short weight and cheat and defraud the poor: _my_
business will not be ruined--_my_ character is not at stake."

"Let un have it, sir; he be a bad un," and here he rose to depart. Mr.
Locust gave him a professional shake of the hand and wished him good day.
But as the door was just about to be closed on his client, he remembered
something which he desired to ask, so he called, "Mr. Snooks!"

"Sir," said the client.

"Is there any truth in the statement that this Bumpkin beats his wife?"

"I doant rightly know," said Snooks, in a hesitating voice; "it may be
true. I shouldn't wonder--he's just the sort o' man."

"Just enquire about that, will you?"

"I wool, sir," said Snooks; and thus his interview with his Solicitor
terminated.

Now the result of the enquiries as to the domestic happiness of Bumpkin
was this; first, the question floated about in a vague sort of form,
"_Does Bumpkin beat his wife_?" then it grew into "_Have you heard that
Bumpkin beats his wife_?" and lastly, it was affirmed that Bumpkin
"_really did beat his wife_." And the scandal spread so rapidly that it
soon reached the ears of plaintiff himself, who would have treated it
with the contempt it deserved, knowing the quarter whence it came, but
that it was so gross a calumny that he determined to give the lying
Snooks no quarter, and to press his action with all the energy at his
command.

After this there could be no compromise.

"I wish," said Snooks to himself, as he smoked his pipe that evening, "I
could a worked one o' them there innerenders in my trade--I could a made
summut on him."

CHAPTER VI.

Showing how the g