Mr. Larkin is Vis-A-Vis with a Concealed Companion.

The time had now arrived when our friend Jos. Larkin was to refresh the village of Gylingden with his presence. He had pushed matters forward with wonderful despatch. The deeds, with their blue and silver stamps, were handsomely engrossed — having been approved in draft by Crompton S. Kewes, the eminent Queen’s Counsel, on a case furnished by Jos. Larkin, Esq., The Lodge, Brandon Manor, Gylingden, on behalf of his client, the Reverend William Wylder; and in like manner on behalf of Stanley Williams Brandon Lake, of Brandon Hall, in the county of — — Esq.

In neither draft did Jos. Larkin figure as the purchaser by name. He did not care for advice on any difficulty depending on his special relations to the vendors in both these cases. He wished, as was his custom, everything above-board, and such ‘an opinion’ as might be published by either client in the ‘Times’ next day if he pleased it. Besides these matters of Wylder and of Lake, he had also a clause to insert in a private Act, on behalf of the trustees of the Baptist Chapel, at Naunton Friars; a short deed to be consulted upon on behalf of his client, Pudder Swynfen, Esq., of Swynfen Grange, in the same county; and a deed to be executed at Shillingsworth, which he would take en route for Gylingden, stopping there for that night, and going on by next morning’s train.

Those little trips to town paid very fairly.

In this particular case his entire expenses reached exactly ￡5 3_s., and what do you suppose was the good man’s profit upon that small item? Precisely ￡62 7_s.! The process is simple, Jos. Larkin made his own handsome estimate of his expenses, and the value of his time to and from London, and then he charged this in its entirety — shall we say integrity — to each client separately. In this little excursion he was concerned for no less than five.

His expenses, I say, reached exactly ￡5 3_s. But he had a right to go to Dondale’s if he pleased, instead of that cheap hostelry near Covent Garden. He had a right to a handsome lunch and a handsome dinner, instead of that economical fusion of both meals into one, at a cheap eating-house, in an out-of-the-way quarter. He had a right to his pint of high-priced wine, and to accomplish his wanderings in a cab, instead of, as the Italians say, ‘partly on foot, and partly walking.’ Therefore, and on this principle, Mr. Jos. Larkin had ‘no difficulty’ in acting. His savings, if the good man chose to practise self-denial, were his own — and it was a sort of problem while he stayed, and interested him curiously — keeping down his bill in matters which he would not have dreamed of denying himself at home.

The only client among his wealthy supporters, who ever went in a grudging spirit into one of these little bills of Jos. Larkin’s, was old Sir Mulgrave Bracton — the defunct parent of the Sir Harry, with whom we are acquainted.

‘Don’t you think, Mr. Larkin, you could perhaps reduce this, just a little?’

‘Ah, the expenses?’

‘Well, yes.’

Mr. Jos. Larkin smiled — the smile said plainly, ‘what would he have me live upon, and where?’ We do meet persons of this sort, who would fain ‘fill our bellies with the husks’ that swine digest; what of that — we must remember who we are — gentlemen — and answer this sort of shabbiness, and every other endurable annoyance, as Lord Chesterfield did — with a bow and a smile.

‘I think so,’ said the baronet, in a bluff, firm way.

‘Well, the fact is, when I represent a client, Sir Mulgrave Bracton, of a certain rank and position, I make it a principle — and, as a man of business, I find it tells — to present myself in a style that is suitably handsome.’

‘Oh! an expensive house — where was this, now?’

‘Oh, Sir Mulgrave, pray don’t think of it — I’m only too happy — pray, draw your pen across the entire thing.’

‘I think so,’ said the baronet unexpectedly. ‘Don’t you think if we said a pound a-day, and your travelling expenses?’

‘Certainly — any_thing — what_ever you please, Sir.’

And the attorney waved his long hand a little, and smiled almost compassionately; and the little alteration was made, and henceforward he spoke of Sir Mulgrave as not quite a pleasant man to deal with in money matters; and his confidential friends knew that in a transaction in which he had paid money out of his own pocket for Sir Mulgrave he had never got back more than seven and sixpence in the pound; and, what made it worse, it was a matter connected with the death of poor Lady Bracton! And he never lost an opportunity of conveying his opinion of Sir Mulgrave, sometimes in distinct and confidential sentences, and sometimes only by a sad shake of his head, or by awfully declining to speak upon the subject.

In the present instance Jos. Larkin was returning in a heavenly frame of mind to the Lodge, Brandon Manor, Gylingden. Whenever he was away he interpolated ‘Brandon Manor,’ and stuck it on his valise and hat-case; and liked to call aloud to the porters tumbling among the luggage —‘Jos. Larkin, Esquire, Brandon Manor, if you please;’ and to see the people read the inscription in the hall of his dingy hostelry. Well might the good man glow with a happy consciousness of a blessing. In small things as in great he was prosperous.

This little excursion to London would cost him, as I said, exactly ￡5 3_s. It might have cost him ￡13 10_s. and at that sum his expenses figured in h............