'The case is before Mr. Serjeant Grinders. These bigwigs don't return their
cases sometimes so quickly as we could wish.'
'Then you have _no_ opinion?' smiled my uncle.
'My solicitor is quite clear upon it; and it seems to me there can be no
question raised, but for form's sake.'
'Yes, for form's sake you take one, and in the meantime, upon a nice
question of law, the surmises of a thick-headed attorney and of an
ingenious apoth--I beg pardon, physician--are sufficient warrant for
telling my niece and ward, in my presence, that I am defrauding her!'
My uncle leaned back in his chair, and smiled with a contemptuous patience
over Doctor Bryerly's head, as he spoke.
'I don't know whether I used that expression, sir, but I am speaking merely
in a technical sense. I mean to say, that, whether by mistake or otherwise,
you are exercising a power which you don't lawfully possess, and that the
effect of that is to impoverish the estate, and, by so much as it benefits
you, to wrong this young lady.'
'I'm a technical defrauder, I see, and your manner conveys the rest. I
thank my God, sir, I am a _very_ different man from what I once was.
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