Page:Dickens - Our Mutual Friend, ed. Lang, 1897, vol.1.djvu/49

 " Well, I am sure, sir! " said the boy, resisting; " I hope you'll know me again."

Eugene vouchsafed no answer; but made the proposal to Mortimer, " I'll go with you, if you like? " So, they all three went away together in the vehicle that had brought the boy; the two friends (once boys together at a public school) inside, smoking cigars; the messenger on the box beside the driver.

" Let me see," said Mortimer, as they went along; " I have been, Eugene, upon the honourable roll of solicitors of the High Court of Chancery, and attorneys at Common Law, five years; and except gratuitously taking instructions, on an average once a fortnight, for the will of Lady Tippins who has nothing to leave I have had no scrap of business but this romantic business."

" And I," said Eugene, " have been * called ' seven years, and have had no business at all, and never shall have any. And if I had, I shouldn't know how to do it.'

"I am far from being clear as to the last particular," returned Mortimer, with great composure, " that I have much advantage over you."

" I hate," said Eugene, putting his legs up on the opposite seat, "I hate my profession."

" Shall I incommode you if I put mine up too? " returned Mortimer. " Thank you. I hate mine."

" It was forced upon me," said the gloomy Eugene, "because it was understood that we wanted a barrister in the family. We have got a precious one."

"It was forced upon me," said Mortimer, "because it was understood that we wanted a solicitor in the family. And we have got a precious one."

" There are four of us, with our names painted on a door post in right of one black hole called a set of chambers," said Eugene; " and each of us has the fourth of a clerk Cassim Baba, in the robber's cave and Cassim is the only respectable member of the party."