‘Oh!  I thought it might be professionally, Sir,’ said Toole, a little grandly; for he had seen the gentleman before, and had, by this time, found out all about him, and perceived he had no chance of a fee.

‘It is professionally, Sir,’ quoth Dirty Davy, ’if you’ll be so obleeging as to give me five minutes.’

With that amiable egotism which pervades human nature, it will be observed, each gentleman interpreted ‘professionally’ as referring to his own particular calling.

So Toole declared himself ready and prepared to do his office, and Dirty Davy commenced.

‘You know me, I believe, Sir?’

‘Mr. David O’Reegan, as I believe,’ answered Toole.

‘The same, Sir,’ replied Davy.  ’I’m on my way, Sir, to the Mills, where my client, Mrs. Nutter (here Toole uttered a disdainful grunt), resides; and I called at your house, doctor, and they sent me here; and I am desirous to prove to you, Sir, as a friend of Miss Sarah Harty, styling herself Mrs. Nutter, that my client’s rights are clear and irresistible, in order that you may use any interest you may have with that ill-advised faymale—­and I’m told she respects your advice and opinion highly—­to induce her to submit without further annoyance; and I tell you, in confidence, she has run herself already into a very sarious predicament.’

‘Well, Sir, I’ll be happy to hear you,’ answered Toole.

‘’Tis no more, Sir, than I expected from your well-known candour,’ replied Dirty Davy, with the unctuous politeness with which he treated such gentlemen as he expected to make use of.  ’Now, Sir, I’ll open our case without any reserve or exaggeration to you, Sir, and that, Doctor Toole, is what I wouldn’t do to many beside yourself.  The facts is in a nutshell.  We claim our conjugal rights.  Why, Sir?  Because, Sir, we married the oppugnant, Charles Nutter, gentleman, of the Mills, and so forth, on the 7th of April, Anno Domini, 1750, in the Church of St. Clement Danes, in London, of which marriage this, Sir, is a verbatim copy of the certificate.  Now, Sir, your client—­I mane your friend—­Misthress Mary Harty, who at present affects the state and usurps the rights of marriage against my client—­the rightful Mrs. Nutter, performed and celebrated a certain pretended marriage with the same Charles Nutter, in Chapelizod Church, on the 4th of June, 1758, seven years and ten months, wanting three days, subsequent to the marriage of my client.  Well, Sir, I see exactly, Sir, what you’d ask:  “Is the certificate genuine?"’

Toole grunted an assent.

‘Well, Sir, upon that point I have to show you this,’ and he handed him a copy of Mr. Luke Gamble’s notice served only two days before, to the effect that, having satisfied himself by enquiring on the spot of the authenticity of the certificate of the marriage of Charles Nutter of the Mills, and so forth, to Mary Duncan, his client did not mean to dispute it.  ’And, Sir, further, as we were