Alarmed by the excessive pinkness of his client, Mr. Bintrey lost not a moment in leading him forth into the court-yard.  It was easily done; for the counting-house in which they talked together opened on to it, at one side of the dwelling-house.  There the attorney pumped with a will, obedient to a sign from the client, and the client laved his head and face with both hands, and took a hearty drink.  After these remedies, he declared himself much better.

“Don’t let your good feelings excite you,” said Bintrey, as they returned to the counting-house, and Mr. Wilding dried himself on a jack-towel behind an inner door.

“No, no.  I won’t,” he returned, looking out of the towel.  “I won’t.  I have not been confused, have I?”

“Not at all.  Perfectly clear.”

“Where did I leave off, Mr. Bintrey?”

“Well, you left off—­but I wouldn’t excite myself, if I was you, by taking it up again just yet.”

“I’ll take care.  I’ll take care.  The singing in my head came on at where, Mr. Bintrey?”

“At roast, and boiled, and beer,” answered the lawyer,—­“prompting lodging under the same roof—­and one and all—­”

“Ah!  And one and all singing in the head together—­”

“Do you know, I really would not let my good feelings excite me, if I was you,” hinted the lawyer again, anxiously.  “Try some more pump.”

“No occasion, no occasion.  All right, Mr. Bintrey.  And one and all forming a kind of family!  You see, Mr. Bintrey, I was not used in my childhood to that sort of individual existence which most individuals have led, more or less, in their childhood.  After that time I became absorbed in my late dear mother.  Having lost her, I find that I am more fit for being one of a body than one by myself one.  To be that, and at the same time to do my duty to those dependent on me, and attach them to me, has a patriarchal and pleasant air about it.  I don’t know how it may appear to you, Mr Bintrey, but so it appears to me.”

“It is not I who am all-important in the case, but you,” returned Bintrey.  “Consequently, how it may appear to me is of very small importance.”

“It appears to me,” said Mr. Wilding, in a glow, “hopeful, useful, delightful!”

“Do you know,” hinted the lawyer again, “I really would not ex—­”

“I am not going to.  Then there’s Handel.”

“There’s who?” asked Bintrey.

“Handel, Mozart, Haydn, Kent, Purcell, Doctor Arne, Greene, Mendelssohn.  I know the choruses to those anthems by heart.  Foundling Chapel Collection.  Why shouldn’t we learn them together?”

“Who learn them together?” asked the lawyer, rather shortly.

“Employer and employed.”

“Ay, ay,” returned Bintrey, mollified; as if he had half expected the answer to be, Lawyer and client.  “That’s another thing.”

“Not another thing, Mr. Bintrey!  The same thing.  A part of the bond among us.  We will form a Choir in some quiet church near the Corner here, and, having sung together of a Sunday with a relish, we will come home and take an early dinner together with a relish.  The object that I have at heart now is, to get this system well in action without delay, so that my new partner may find it founded when he enters on his partnership.”