Page:Henry Northcote (IA henrynorthcote00snairich).pdf/65

 *employed in Hyde Park. M'Murdo was with me. "My hat," said he, "that's a fellow called Northcote; he's at the bar. A nice place for a barrister, isn't it?" "Personally," said I, "I don't care a curse about the place, but I'd give ten years of my life to have his voice." There the thing was booming like an organ, and we stayed half an hour listening to rhetoric that might have come out of Burke.'

"'And the second time?'

"'I have only the haziest recollection of the occasion. Where it was I can't recall, but the mob orator was paraphrasing "Hamlet" to gain facility of expression. But I remember thinking, "My son, you will be bursting upon an astonished world one of these fine afternoons, and then we shall all be complaining about your luck for being born so gifted."

"And so, my dear Northcote, to round up a long story, thus it was I came to stand in your chambers, dinnerless, at a quarter-past ten of a winter's night."

As is not uncommon with those who possess mental energy, the solicitor, under the stimulus of wine and events, had an immense volubility. During this recital the claret had circulated freely between his companion and himself. Both their faces were flushed, and, moreover, the emotions which had been excited in the young advocate had filled him with a kind of vertigo.

"After all," said he, resting his forehead on his hand and staring into vacancy, "it is most probably Tobin who is the genie."

"Set a thief to catch a thief," laughed the solic