worn it to shreds. Suppose we leave out all reference to the Hooper
millions. If the public is as tired of those millions as I am at
times, Mr. Flanders, we'll be doing an act of charity if we leave 'em
out. You will get your best story, as you call it, by observing what
happens here to-night. No one else has ever done it for a newspaper.
You are the first, my dear sir. I am a simple man. I don't like to be
in the newspapers. The long and tiresome litigation over my poor
uncle's estate has kept me more or less in the limelight, as you
fellows would say, and there have been times when I willingly would
have given up the fight if my lawyers had allowed me to do so. But a
lawyer is something you can't get rid of, once you've got him--or he's
got you, strictly speaking. My lawyers won't allow ME to quit, and I
have every reason to suspect that they won't allow the other side to
quit. However, I believe the matter is nearing an end. The United
States Supreme Court will pass on the issue just as soon as the
lawyers on both sides reach a verdict--that is to say, a verdict
acknowledging that it won't pay them to delay the business any longer.
The case of Hooper et al vs. Bingle has been going on like the
Jarndyce matter for nearly nine years. We've licked them in every
court and in three separate hearings, and my lawyers are confident the
Supreme Court will sustain the findings of the lower courts. I am a
tender-hearted lunatic, Mr. Flanders. I have made an arrangement
whereby the son and two daughters of Joseph Hooper are to be paid one
million dollars each out of the estate, just as soon as I know
definitely that I have beaten them in the court of last resort. I
guess that will surprise 'em, eh?"

Flanders' eyes glittered. "Don't forget, Mr. Bingle, that you are
speaking to a newspaper man. That last statement of yours would make a
sensation, sir."