ROUGH ON HIS CLIENT.

Evening Post, Volume XLVIII, Issue 54, 1 September 1894, Page 1 (Supplement)

ROUGH ON HIS CLIENT.

Mr. Sala discourses of moneylenders ; among them of a certain Mr. Quasimodo, who once had an action for breach of promise brought against him by a handsome and wily widow ho laiiiiaeli being "a. very much married (but -small) man, with a wile as tall as a Life Guardsman and //wo strapping daughters." However 1 , the money-lender was able to retain the services of Mr. Serjeant Wilkins, who, after reading the brief, told Mr. Quasimodo that the case was one that must be " bounced " through. And this was how Mr. Sergeant Wilkins . "bounced it." "Gentlemen of the jury," he said, at the close of a most eloquent speech, in which he endeavoured to persuade the twelve honest men in the box that they were about the most intelligent and most patriotic jurymen that had ever been empanelled since the Trial of the Seven ßiahops, "you have heard the evidence for the plaintiff; and, gentlemen of the jury, you have seen and admired that most bewitching plaintiff herself. Gentlemen, do you believe that this enchanting, this fascinating, tbits captivating, this accomplished lady would, for one moment, favour the advances or listen with anything save scorn and indignation to the amorous protestations of the wretched and repulsive homunculus, the degraded defendant?" Mr. Quasimodo looked up from the well of the court and piteously murmured, "Mr. Serjeant Wilkins! Oh, Mr. Serjeant Wilkins ! " " Silence, sir ! " replied the Serjeant, in a wrathful undertone. " Gentlemen," he continued, bringing his fist down heavily on the desk before him, " do you think that this lovely lady, this fair and smiling creature, would ever have permitted an offer of marriage to be made her by this deplorable atom of humanity, this stunted deformity, who would have to stand on a sheet of notepaper to look over twopence? " The jury at once gave a verdict for the defendant.