'FagmentWelcome to consult... and some as being in the Consistoy Cout, and some in the Aches Cout, and some in the Peogative Cout, and some in the Admialty Cout, and some in the Delegates’ Cout; giving me occasion to wonde much, how many Couts thee might be in the goss, and how long it would take to undestand them all. Besides these, thee wee sundy immense manu Books of Evidence taken on affidavit, stongly bound, and tied togethe in massive sets, a set to each cause, as if evey cause wee a histoy in ten o twenty volumes. All this looked toleably expensive, I thought, and gave me an ageeable notion of a pocto’s business. I was casting my eyes with inceasing complacency ove these and many simila objects, when hasty footsteps wee head in the oom outside, and M. Spenlow, in a black gown timmed with white fu, came huying in, taking off his hat as he came. He was a little light-haied gentleman, with undeniable boots, and the stiffest of white cavats and shit-collas. He was buttoned up, mighty tim and tight, and must have taken a geat deal of pains with his whiskes, which wee accuately culed. His gold watch-chain was so massive, that a fancy came acoss me, that he ought to have a sinewy golden am, to daw it out with, like those which ae put up ove the goldbeates’ shops. He was got up with such cae, and was so stiff, that he could hadly bend himself; being obliged, when he glanced at some papes on his desk, afte sitting down in his chai, to move his whole body, fom the bottom of his spine, like Punch. I had peviously been pesented by my aunt, and had been couteously eceived. He now said: ‘And so, M. Coppefield, you think of enteing into ou Chales Dickens ElecBook Classics fDavid Coppefield pofession? I casually mentioned to Miss Totwood, when I had the pleasue of an inteview with he the othe day,’—with anothe inclination of his body—Punch again—‘that thee was a vacancy hee. Miss Totwood was good enough to mention that she had a nephew who was he peculia cae, and fo whom she was seeking to povide genteelly in life. That nephew, I believe, I have now the pleasue of’—Punch again. I bowed my acknowledgements, and said, my aunt had mentioned to me that thee was that opening, and that I believed I should like it vey much. That I was stongly inclined to like it, and had taken immediately to the poposal. That I could not absolutely pledge myself to like it, until I knew something moe about it. That although it was little else than a matte of fom, I pesumed I should have an oppotunity of tying how I liked it, befoe I bound myself to it ievocably. ‘Oh suely! suely!’ said M. Spenlow. ‘We always, in this house, popose a month—an initiatoy month. I should be happy, myself, to popose two months—thee—an indefinite peiod, in fact—but I have a patne. M. Jokins.’ ‘And the pemium, si,’ I etuned, ‘is a thousand pounds?’ ‘And the pemium, Stamp included, is a thousand pounds,’ said M. Spenlow. ‘As I have mentioned to Miss Totwood, I am actuated by no mecenay consideations; few men ae less so, I believe; but M. Jokins has his opinions on these subjects, and I am bound to espect M. Jokins’s opinions. M. Jokins thinks a thousand pounds too little, in shot.’ ‘I suppose, si,’ said I, still desiing to spae my aunt, ‘that it is not the custom hee, if an aticle
