'I was two or three days over the work.'
'But you found exactly what you wanted?'
'I found what I expected to find.'
'And that, although all those papers had been subjected to the scrutiny of Messrs. Round and Crook at the time of that other trial twenty years ago?'
'I was sharper than them, Mr. Chaffanbrass,—a great deal sharper.'
'So I perceive,' said Chaffanbrass, and now he had pushed back his wig a little, and his eyes had begun to glare with an ugly red light. 'Yes,' he said, 'it will be long, I think, before my old friends Round and Crook are as sharp as you are, Mr. Dockwrath.'
'Upon my word I agree with you, Mr. Chaffanbrass.'
'Yes; Round and Crook are babies to you, Mr. Dockwrath;' and now Mr. Chaffanbrass began to pick at his chin with his finger, as he was accustomed to do when he warmed to his subject. 'Babies to you! You have had a good deal to do with them, I should say, in getting up this case.'
'I have had something to do with them.'
'And very much they must have enjoyed your society, Mr. Dockwrath! And what wrinkles they must have learned from you! What a pleasant oasis it must have been in the generally somewhat dull course of their monotonous though profitable business! I quite envy Round and Crook having you alongside of them in their inner council-chamber.'
'I know nothing about that, sir.'
'No; I dare say you don't;—but they'll remember it. Well, when you'd turned over your father-in-law's papers for three days you found what you looked for?'
'Yes, I did.'
'You had been tolerably sure that you would find it before you began, eh?'
'Well, I had expected that something would turn up.'
'I have no doubt you did,—and something has turned up. That gentleman sitting next to you there,—who is he?'
'Joseph Mason, Esquire, of Groby Park,' said Dockwrath.
'So I thought. It is he that is to have Orley Farm, if Lady Mason and her son should lose it?'
'In that case he would be the heir.'
'Exactly. He would be the heir. How pleasant it must be to you to find yourself on such affectionate terms with—the heir! And when he comes into his inheritance, who is to be tenant? Can you tell us that?'
Dockwrath here paused for a moment. Not that he hesitated as to telling the whole truth. He had fully made up his mind to do so, and to brazen the matter out, declaring that of course he was to be considered worthy of his reward. But there was that in the
