 man in his way, and constructed his inn of old building
materials, which took kindly to the dry rot and to dirt and all things decaying
and dismal, and perpetuated Symond's memory with congenial shabbiness. Quartered
in this dingy hatchment commemorative of Symond, are the legal bearings of Mr.
Vholes.
    Mr. Vholes's office, in disposition retiring and in situation retired, is
squeezed up in a corner, and blinks at a dead wall. Three feet of knotty floored
dark passage bring the client to Mr. Vholes's jet black door, in an angle
profoundly dark on the brightest midsummer morning, and encumbered by a black
bulk-head of cellarage staircase, against which belated civilians generally
strike their brows. Mr. Vholes's chambers are on so small a scale, that one
clerk can open the door without getting off his stool, while the other who
elbows him at the same desk has equal facilities for poking the fire. A smell as
of unwholesome sheep, blending with the smell of must and dust, is referable to
the nightly (and often daily) consumption of mutton fat in candles, and to the
fretting of parchment forms and skins in greasy drawers. The atmosphere is
otherwise stale and close. The place was last painted or whitewashed beyond the
memory of man, and the two chimneys smoke, and there is a loose outer surface of
soot everywhere, and the dull cracked windows in their heavy frames have but one
piece of character in them, which is a determination to be always dirty, and
always shut, unless coerced. This accounts for the phenomenon of the weaker of
the two usually having a bundle of firewood thrust between its jaws in hot
weather.
    Mr. Vholes is a very respectable man. He has not a large business, but he is
a very respectable man. He is allowed by the greater attorneys who have made
good fortunes, or are making them, to be a most respectable man. He never misses
a chance in his practice; which is a mark of respectability. He never takes any
pleasure; which is another mark of respectability. He is reserved and serious;
which is another mark of respectability. His digestion is impaired, which is
highly respectable. And he is making hay of the grass which is flesh, for his
three daughters. And his father is dependent on him in the Vale of Taunton.
    The one great principle of the English law is, to make business for itself.
There is no other principle distinctly, certainly, and consistently maintained
through all its narrow turnings. Viewed by this light it becomes a coherent
