 - more specifically - that a male Tulliver was far more
than equal to four female Dodsons, even though one of them was Mrs. Glegg.
    But not even a direct argument from that typical Dodson female herself
against his going to law, could have heightened his disposition towards it so
much as the mere thought of Wakem, continually freshened by the sight of the too
able attorney on market-days. Wakem, to his certain knowledge, was
(metaphorically speaking) at the bottom of Pivart's irrigation: Wakem had tried
to make Dix stand out, and go to law about the dam: it was unquestionably Wakem
who had caused Mr. Tulliver to lose the suit about the right of road and the
bridge that made a thoroughfare of his land for every vagabond who preferred an
opportunity of damaging private property to walking like an honest man along the
high-road: all lawyers were more or less rascals, but Wakem's rascality was of
that peculiarly aggravated kind which placed itself in opposition to that form
of right embodied in Mr. Tulliver's interests and opinions. And as an extra
touch of bitterness, the injured miller had recently, in borrowing the five
hundred pounds, been obliged to carry a little business to Wakem's office on his
own account. A hook-nosed glib fellow! as cool as a cucumber - always looking so
sure of his game! And it was vexatious that Lawyer Gore was not more like him,
but was a bald, round-featured man, with bland manners and fat hands; a
game-cock that you would be rash to bet upon against Wakem. Gore was a sly
fellow; his weakness did not lie on the side of scrupulosity: but the largest
amount of winking, however significant, is not equivalent to seeing through a
stone wall; and confident as Mr. Tulliver was in his principle that water was
water, and in the direct inference that Pivart had not a leg to stand on in this
affair of irrigation, he had an uncomfortable suspicion that Wakem had more law
to show against this (rationally) irrefragable inference, than Gore could show
for it. But then, if they went to law, there was a chance for Mr. Tulliver to
employ Counsellor Wylde on his side, instead of having that admirable bully
against him; and the prospect of seeing a witness of Wakem's made to perspire
and become confounded, as Mr. Tulliver's witness had once been, was alluring to
the love of retributive justice.
    Much rumination had Mr. Tulliver on these puzzling subjects during his rides
on the grey horse -
