112 THE HAUGHTYSHIRE HUNT. 



" EoYAL Courts of Justice, 



"Bar Waiting- room. 

 " My dear Trousers, 



" I've just slipped in here to write you a line about 



the proceedings to-day ; this is the barristers' room where I 



am writing, No Admittance for anybody else, but I just 



put on a pre-oecupied, hunted-to-death look, and the cove in 



uniform at the door stepped out of the way, and in I came. 



Well, my case is adjourned till Thursday, so it ain't worth 



while coming down till after it's over. At to-day's proceedings 



one of the things they asked me was a poser, 



" ' Why don't you pay this debt ? ' ' Ask me an easier one,' 

 I said ; and then the judge looked like thunder, and the other 

 side's Counsel glared, and my Counsel drove his elbow into 

 my ribs, and it was generally impressed on me that that 

 wasn't the way to answer legal conundrums. When, at last, 

 I escaped from the beastly place, I felt I really must have 

 been guilty of something very much more awful than the 

 non-payment of a long-standing account. I began to wish I 

 could change places with a dynamiter, because, by the aid of 

 a tender-hearted Home Secretary, acting on the information 

 o£ a doctor, who, to bolster up his colleague, says one thing 

 while he means another, I should be sure to escape the 

 consequences of my acts, however diabolical they were. 



" I'm wondering if you've bought anything at Fobb {sic) ; 

 if so, I hope it's a good fenser (sic). 



" Yours to a chip, 



" Tommy. 



"P.S. — If I ain't in Holloway Gaol by Thursday night, I 

 shall be down with you Friday morning, so send cart to meet 

 the 12 o'clock train, there's a good chap." 



