the eye. No single circumstance of expediency was
unobserved, no detail of propriety was overlooked. Pomp lay in a
litter which he had borrowed of Ease.

"Shall I write again?" said the solicitor.

Mr. Justice Molehill stared at his port. After a moment--

"No," he said slowly. "Not at present, at any rate. I don't want to
push the matter, because I've got so very little to go on. In moving
at all, I'm laying myself open to the very deuce of a snub."

"I shall get the snub," said his guest. "But that's what I'm paid for.
Besides, I'm fairly hardened."

That he evinced not the slightest curiosity regarding his mysterious
instructions argued a distinction between the individual and the
adviser, firmly drawn and religiously observed. For a Justice of the
King's Bench suddenly to be consumed by a desire to know the names of
the uncles of somebody else's footman smacked of collaboration by
Gilbert and Chardenal. Once, however, the solicitor knew his client,
he asked no questions. Reticence and confidence were in his eyes
equally venerable. Usually he had his reward. He had it now.

"In the spring," said his companion, "of 1914 I went to Sicily. On my
way back I stopped for one night at Rome. The day I left, while I was
resting after luncheon, the manager of the hotel brought a priest to my
room--a Catholic priest of some position, I fancy--an Englishman. I
can't remember his name. He spoke very civilly, and begged my instant
attention.

"An old Englishman, it seemed, lay dying upon the first floor. He was
all alone--no relations--no servant. He could speak no Italian.
Realizing that he was dying, he was frantic to make a will. His
frenzied attempts to convey this desire to the attendant doctor had
resulted in the latter dashing into the street and stopping and
returning with the first priest he encountered. This happened to be my
friend. Upon beholding him, the patient, who had hoped for a lawyer,
had turned his face to the wall. Then, to his relief, he found that,
though a priest, yet he was English, and begged him to fetch an
attorney. The priest hurried to the manager, and the manager brought
him to me....

"You know how much I know about wills. All the same, argument was not
to be thought of. To the laity, solicitor, lawyer, barrister, and
attorney are synonymous terms. Moreover, they are all will-wrights. A
judge is a sort of shop-steward....

"Well, I drew one. To tell you the tr