'What shall I say to make her forthcoming?' asked the aid-de-camp.

'Anything you choose,' replied the lawyer. 'Is it my business to
make lies for you, do you think? But let her be in praesentia by
eight o'clock, as I have said before.' The clerk grinned, made his
reverence, and exit.

'That's a useful fellow,' said the Counsellor; 'I don't believe
his match ever carried a process. He'll write to my dictating
three nights in the week without sleep, or, what's the same thing,
he writes as well and correctly when he's asleep as when he's
awake. Then he's such a steady fellow; some of them are always
changing their ale-houses, so that they have twenty cadies
sweating after them, like the bare-headed captains traversing the
taverns of Eastcheap in search of Sir John Falstaff. But this is a
complete fixture; he has his winter seat by the fire and his
summer seat by the window in Luckie Wood's, betwixt which seats
are his only migrations; there he's to be found at all times when
he is off duty. It is my opinion he never puts off his clothes or
goes to sleep; sheer ale supports him under everything. It is
meat, drink, and cloth, bed, board, and washing.'

'And is he always fit for duty upon a sudden turnout? I should
distrust it, considering his quarters.'

'O, drink, never disturbs him, Colonel; he can write for hours
after he cannot speak. I remember being called suddenly to draw an
appeal case. I had been dining, and it was Saturday night, and I
had ill will to begin to it; however, they got me down to