Notwithstanding Mr. Newton’s opposition, who was naturally furious at the unexpected turn the affair had taken, the identity of the boy—­whom that gentleman persisted in asserting to be dead and buried—­was clearly established; and Mr. Archibald Andrews, on the day he became of age, received possession of his fortune.  The four thousand pounds had of course been repaid out of Jesse Andrews’s legacy.  That person has, so to speak, since skulked through life, a mark for the covert scorn of every person acquainted with the very black transaction here recorded.  This was doubtless a much better fate than he deserved; and in strict, or poetical justice, his punishment ought unquestionably to have been much greater—­more apparent also, than it was, for example’s sake.  But I am a man not of fiction, but of fact, and consequently relate events, not as they precisely ought, but as they do, occasionally occur in lawyers’ offices, and other unpoetical nooks and corners of this prosaic, matter-of-fact, working-day world.

BIGAMY OR NO BIGAMY?

The firm of Flint and Sharp enjoyed, whether deservedly or not, when I was connected with it, as it still does, a high reputation for keen practice and shrewd business-management.  This kind of professional fame is usually far more profitable than the drum-and-trumpet variety of the same article; or at least we found it so; and often, from blush of morn to far later than dewy eve—­which natural phenomena, by the way, were only emblematically observed by me during thirty busy years in the extinguishment of the street lamps at dawn, and their re-illumination at dusk—­did I and my partner incessantly pursue our golden avocations; deferring what are usually esteemed the pleasures of life—­its banquets, music, flowers, and lettered ease—­till the toil, and heat, and hurry of the day were past, and a calm, luminous evening, unclouded by care or anxiety, had arrived.  This conduct may or may not have been wise; but at all events it daily increased the connection and transactions of the firm, and ultimately anchored us both very comfortably in the three per cents; and this too, I am bold to say, not without our having effected some good in our generation.  This boast of mine the following passage in the life of a distinguished client—­known, I am quite sure, by reputation to most of the readers of these papers, whom our character for practical sagacity and professional shrewdness brought us—­will, I think, be admitted in some degree to substantiate.

Our connection was a mercantile rather than an aristocratic one, and my surprise was therefore considerable, when, on looking through the office-blinds to ascertain what vehicle it was that had driven so rapidly up to the door, I observed a handsomely-appointed carriage with a coronet emblazoned on the panels, out of which a tall footman was handing a lady attired in deep but elegant mourning, and closely veiled.  I instantly