s half-crowns, which he had
shown to me with great pride that very morning! When he saw the world
again the rogue had disappeared.

The famous place for these pugilistic encounters, or one of the famous
places, was a spot called Noon's Folly, which was within a very few
miles of Royston, where the counties of Cambridge, Suffolk, Essex,
and Hertfordshire meet, or most of them. That was the scene of many a
stiff encounter; and although, of course, there were both magisterial
and police interference when the knowledge reached them that a fight
was about to take place within their particular jurisdiction, by some
singular misadventure the knowledge never reached them until their
worships were returning from the battle. All was over before any
_official_ communication was made.

* * * * *

I was entered of the Middle Temple on April 16, 1839, and remained
with Mr. Butt until I had kept sufficient terms to qualify me to take
out a licence to plead on my own account, which I did at the earliest
possible date. This was a great step in my career, although, of
course, the licence did not enable me to plead in court, as I was not
called to the Bar.

If work came I should now be in a fair way to attain independence.
But the prospect was by no means flattering; it was, in fact, all but
hopeless while the position of a special pleader was not my ambition.
The lookout, in fact, was anything but encouraging from the fifth
floor of _No. 3 Elm Court_--I mean prospectively. It was a region
not inaccessible, of course, but it looked on to a landscape of
chimney-pots, not one of which was likely to attract attorneys; it was
cheap and lonely, dull and miserable--a melancholy altitude beyond the
world and its companionship. Had I been of a melancholy disposition I
might have gone mad, for hope surely never came to a fifth floor. But
there I sat day by day, week by week, and month by month, waiting for
the knock that never came, hoping for the business that might never
come.

Hundreds of times did I listen with vain expectations to the footsteps
on the stairs below--footsteps of attorneys and clerks, messengers and
office-boys. I knew them all, and that was all I knew of them. Down
below at the bottom flight they tramped, and there they mostly
stopped. The ground floor was evidently the best for business; but
some came higher, to the first floor. That was a good position; there
were plenty of footsteps, an