The temptation was very great.  Sir John wanted him to go,—­told him that he ought to go!  Sir John was the man responsible for the whole matter.  He, Bagwax, had done his best.  Could it be right for him to provoke Sir John by contesting the matter,—­contesting it so much to his own disadvantage?  Had he not done enough for honesty?—­enough to satisfy even that grand idea of duty?  As he turned the bundle of documents round in his hand, he made up his mind that he had not done enough.  There was a little gurgle in his throat, almost a tear in his eye, as he replied, ’I don’t think I should be wanted to go if you would look at these envelopes.’

Sir John understood it all at once,—­and there was much to understand.  He knew how anxious the man was to go on this projected journey, and he perceived the cause which was inducing him to surrender his own interests.  He remembered that the journey must be made at a great expense to his own client.  He ran over the case in his mind, and acknowledged to himself that conclusive evidence,—­evidence that should be quite conclusive,—­of fraud as to the envelope, might possibly suffice to release his client at once from prison.  He told himself also that he could not dare to express an opinion on the matter himself without a close inspection of those postmarks,—­that a close inspection might probably take two hours, and that the two hours would finally have to be abstracted from the already curtailed period of his nightly slumbers.  Then he thought of the state of his tables, and the difficulties as to space.  Perhaps that idea was the one strongest in his mind against the examination.

But then what a hero was Bagwax!  What self-abnegation was there!  Should he be less ready to devote himself to his client,—­he, who was paid for his work,—­than this post-office clerk, who was as pure in his honesty as he was zealous in the cause?  ’There are a great many of them, I suppose?’ he said, almost whining.

‘A good many, Sir John.’

‘Have at it!’ said the Queen’s Counsel and late Attorney-General, springing up from his chair.  Bagwax almost jumped out of the way, so startled was he by the quick and sudden movement.  Sir John rang his bell; but not waiting for the clerk, began to hurl the chaos in solution on to the top of the concrete chaos.  Bagwax naturally attempted to assist him.  ‘For G—–­’s sake, don’t you touch them!’ said Sir John, as though avenging himself by a touch of scorn for the evil thing which was being done to him.  Then Jones hurried into the room, and with more careful hands assisted his master, trying to preserve some order with the disturbed papers.  In this way the large office-table was within three minutes made clear for the Bagwaxian strategy.  Mr. Jones declared afterwards that it was seven years since he had seen the entire top of that table.  ‘Now go ahead!’ said Sir John, who seemed, during the operation, to have lost something of his ordinary dignity.