 before us, for the consideration of those questions.«
    »Micawber,« she returned, »no! Your mistake in life is, that you do not look
forward far enough. You are bound, in justice to your family, if not to
yourself, to take in at a comprehensive glance the extremest point in the
horizon to which your abilities may lead you.«
    Mr. Micawber coughed, and drank his punch with an air of exceeding
satisfaction - still glancing at Traddles, as if he desired to have his opinion.
    »Why, the plain state of the case, Mrs. Micawber,« said Traddles, mildly
breaking the truth to her, »I mean the real prosaic fact, you know -«
    »Just so,« said Mrs. Micawber, »my dear Mr. Traddles, I wish to be as
prosaic and literal as possible on a subject of so much importance.«
    »- Is,« said Traddles, »that this branch of the law, even if Mr. Micawber
were a regular solicitor -«
    »Exactly so,« returned Mrs. Micawber. (»Wilkins, you are squinting, and will
not be able to get your eyes back.«)
    »- Has nothing,« pursued Traddles, »to do with that. Only a barrister is
eligible for such preferments; and Mr. Micawber could not be a barrister,
without being entered at an inn of court as a student, for five years.«
    »Do I follow you?« said Mrs. Micawber, with her most affable air of
business. »Do I understand, my dear Mr. Traddles, that, at the expiration of
that period, Mr. Micawber would be eligible as a Judge or Chancellor?«
    »He would be eligible,« returned Traddles, with a strong emphasis on that
word.
    »Thank you,« said Mrs. Micawber. »That is quite sufficient. If such is the
case, and Mr. Micawber forfeits no privilege by entering on these duties, my
anxiety is set at rest. I speak,« said Mrs. Micawber, »as a female, necessarily;
but I have always been of opinion that Mr. Micawber possesses what I have heard
my papa call, when I lived at home, the judicial mind; and I hope Mr. Micawber
is now entering on a field where that mind will develop itself, and take a
commanding station.«
    I quite believe that Mr. Micawber saw himself, in his judicial mind's eye,
on the woolsack. He passed his hand complacently over his bald
