prepared to assume. The substance of the letter is before you. I
am here to--er--express its spirit. I am here (with great
gallantry) to express the--er--yearnings of cousinly affection. I
am aware--er--that OUR conduct,--if I may use the--er--the plural
of advocacy,--I am aware that--er--OUR conduct has not in the past
years been of--er--er--exemplary character. I am aware that the--
er--death of our lamented cousin, your sainted mother, was--er--
hastened--I may--er--say--pre--cip--itated--by our--er--indiscretion
But we are hereto--er--confess judgment--with--er--er--costs.

Miss Mary (interrupting). In other words, your client, my cousin,
having ruined my father, having turned his own widowed relation out
of doors, and sent me, her daughter, among strangers to earn her
bread; having seen my mother sink and die in her struggle to keep
her family from want,--this man now seeks to condone his offences--
pardon me, sir, if I use your own legal phraseology--by offering me
a home; by giving me part of his ill-gotten wealth, the association
of his own hypocritical self, and the company of his shameless,
profligate son--

Starbottle (interrupting). A moment, Miss Morris,--a single
moment! The epithets you have used, the--er--vigorous
characterization of our--er--conduct, is--er--within the--er--
strict rules of legal advocacy, correct. We are--er--rascals! we
are--er--scoundrels! we are--er--well, I am not--er--prepared to
say that we are not--er--demn me--hypocrites! But the young man
you speak of--our son, whose past life (speaking as Col. Starbottle)
no one more sincerely deprecates than myself,--that young man has
reformed; has been for the past few months a miracle of sobriety,
decorum, and industry; has taken, thanks to the example of--er--