chin.

"You had a mother, too, if I am informed correctly," he continues.

It is idle attempting to escape this man's supernatural acuteness, and
the client owns up to having had a mother also.

From this the lawyer goes on to communicate to the client, as a great
secret, the whole of his (the client's) history from his cradle
upward, and also the history of his nearer relatives, and in less than
half an hour from the old man's entrance, or say forty minutes at the
outside, the client almost knows what the business is about.

On the other occasion, when the client has lost his fortune, the stage
lawyer is even still happier. He comes down himself to tell the
misfortune (he would not miss the job for worlds), and he takes care
to choose the most unpropitious moment possible for breaking the news.
On the eldest daughter's birthday, when there is a big party on, is
his favorite time. He comes in about midnight and tells them just as
they are going down to supper.

He has no idea of business hours, has the stage lawyer--to make the
thing as unpleasant as possible seems to be his only anxiety.

If he cannot work it for a birthday, then he waits till there's a
wedding on, and gets up early in the morning on purpose to run down
and spoil the show. To enter among a crowd of happy, joyous
fellow-creatures and leave them utterly crushed and miserable is the
stage lawyer's hobby.