parition of Huckaback presented
itself, in the manner which has been described. Huckaback's commentary
upon the disgusting text of Titmouse over-night, (as a lawyer would say,
in analogy to a well-known term, "Coke upon Littleton,") produced an
effect upon their minds which may be easily imagined. It was while their
minds were under these two soothing influences, _i. e._ of the insolence
of Huckaback and the vacillation of Frankpledge, that Mr. Gammon had
penned the note to Titmouse, (surely, under the circumstances, one of
extraordinary temper and forbearance,) which had occasioned him the
agonies I have been attempting faintly to describe;--and that Quirk,
summoning Snap into the room, had requested him to give orders for
denial to Titmouse if he should again make his appearance at the office;
which injunction Snap forthwith delivered in the clerk's room, in a tone
and manner that were a very model of the _imperative mood_.

A day or two afterwards, Mr. Quirk, (who was a man that stuck like a
limpet to a rock to any point which occurred to him,) in poring over
that page in the fourth volume of _Blackstone's Commentaries_, where
were to be found the passages which have been already quoted, (and which
both Quirk and Gammon had long had off by heart,) as he sat one day at
dinner, at home, whither he had taken the volume in question, fancied he
had at last hit upon a notable crotchet, which, the more he thought of,
the more he was struck with; determining to pay a visit in the morning
to Mr. Mortmain. The spark of light that had twinkled till it kindled in
the tinder of his mind, was struck by his hard head out of the following
sentence of the text in question:--

"A man _may_, however, maintain the suit of his near kinsman,
servant, or POOR NEIGHBOR, out of _charity and compassion_, with
impunity; _otherwise_, the punishment is," &c. &c.[6]

Now, it seemed to Mr. Quirk, that the words which I have placed in
italics and small capitals, met the case of poor Tittlebat Titmouse
exactly. He stuck to that view of the case, till he _almost_ began to
think that he really had a kind of a sort of a charity and compassion
for poor Tittlebat--kept out of his rights--tyrannized over by a vulgar
draper in Oxford Street--where, too, no doubt, he was half
starved.--"It's a great blessing that one's got the means--and the
inclination, to serve one's poor neighbors"--thought Quirk, as he
swallowed glass after glass of the