 be
professionally concerned in; I should feel on a better standing with my
connection, if you went to the Bench. Don't let that influence you, sir. I
merely state the fact.«
    So errant had the prisoner's attention already grown in solitude and
dejection, and so accustomed had it become to commune with only one silent
figure within the ever-frowning walls, that Clennam had to shake off a kind of
stupor before he could look at Mr. Rugg, recall the thread of his talk, and
hurriedly say, »I am unchanged, and unchangeable, in my decision. Pray, let it
be; let it be!« Mr. Rugg, without concealing that he was nettled and mortified,
replied:
    »Oh! Beyond a doubt, sir. I have travelled out of the record, sir, I am
aware, in putting the point to you. But really, when I hear it remarked in
several companies, and in very good company, that however worthy of a foreigner,
it is not worthy of the spirit of an Englishman to remain in the Marshalsea when
the glorious liberties of his island home admit of his removal to the Bench, I
thought I would depart from the narrow professional line marked out to me, and
mention it. Personally,« said Mr. Rugg, »I have no opinion on the topic.«
    »That's well,« returned Arthur.
    »Oh! None at all, sir!« said Mr. Rugg. »If I had, I should have been
unwilling, some minutes ago, to see a client of mine visited in this place by a
gentleman of a high family riding a saddle-horse. But it was not my business. If
I had, I might have wished to be now empowered to mention to another gentleman,
a gentleman of military exterior at present waiting in the Lodge, that my client
had never intended to remain here, and was on the eve of removal to a superior
abode. But my course as a professional machine is clear; I have nothing to do
with it. Is it your good pleasure to see the gentleman, sir?«
    »Who is waiting to see me, did you say?«
    »I did take that unprofessional liberty, sir. Hearing that I was your
professional adviser, he declined to interpose before my very limited function
was performed. Happily,« said Mr. Rugg, with sarcasm, »I did not so far travel
out of the record as to ask the gentleman for his name.«
    »I suppose I have no
