on't really do you one.' D'you understand?"

Again Mrs. Pendyce murmured:

"I see."

"It sounds a little provincial, but we lawyers exist by reason of
provincialism. If people were once to begin making allowances for each
other, I don't know where we should be."

Mrs. Pendyce's eyes fell again on those words, "Bellew v. Bellew and
Pendyce," and again, as though fascinated by their beauty, rested there.

"But you wanted to see me about something else too, perhaps?" said Mr.
Paramor.

A sudden panic came over her.

"Oh no, thank you. I just wanted to know what had been done. I've come
up on purpose to see George. You told me that I----"

Mr. Paramor hastened to her aid.

"Yes, yes; quite right--quite right."

"Horace hasn't come with me."

"Good!"

"He and George sometimes don't quite----"

"Hit it off? They're too much alike."

"Do you think so? I never saw-----"

"Not in face, not in face; but they've both got----"

Mr. Paramor's meaning was lost in a smile; and Mrs. Pendyce, who did
not know that the word "Pendycitis" was on the tip of his tongue, smiled
vaguely too.

"George is very determined," she said. "Do you think--oh, do you
think, Mr. Paramor, that you will be able to persuade Captain Bellew's
solicitors----"

Mr. Paramor threw himself back in his chair, and his hand covered what
he had written on his blotting-paper.

"Yes," he said slowly----"oh yes, yes!"

But Mrs. Pendyce had had her answer. She had meant to speak of her visit
to Helen Bellew, but now her thought was:

'He won't persuade them; I feel it. Let me get away!'

Again she seemed to hear the incessant clicking, to smell leather and
disinfectant, to see those words, "Bellew v. Bellew and, Pendyce."

She held out her hand.

Mr. Paramor took it in his own and looked at the floor.

"Good-bye," he said-"good-bye. What's your address--Green's Hotel? I'll
come and tell you what I do. I know--I know!"

Mrs. Pendyce, on whom those words "I know--I know!" had a strange,
emotionalising effect, as though no one had ever known before, went away
with quivering lips. In her life no one had ever "known"--not indeed
that she could or would complain of such a trifle, but the fact
remained. And at this moment, oddly, she thought of her husband, and
wondered what he was doing, and felt sorry for him.

But Mr. Paramor went back to his seat and stared at what he had written
on his blotting paper. It ran thus:

"We stand on our