 been done,« repeated Mr. Kenge. »Quite so. Yes. Why, not much has
been done; not much. We have been checked - brought up suddenly, I would say -
upon the - shall I term it threshold?«
    »Is this Will considered a genuine document, sir?« said Allan; »will you
tell us that?«
    »Most certainly, if I could,« said Mr. Kenge; »but we have not gone into
that, we have not gone into that.«
    »We have not gone into that,« repeated Mr. Vholes, as if his low inward
voice were an echo.
    »You are to reflect, Mr. Woodcourt,« observed Mr. Kenge, using his silver
trowel, persuasively and smoothingly, »that this has been a great cause, that
this has been a protracted cause, that this has been a complex cause. Jarndyce
and Jarndyce has been termed, not inaptly, a Monument of Chancery practice.«
    »And Patience has sat upon it a long time,« said Allan.
    »Very well indeed, sir,« returned Mr. Kenge, with a certain condescending
laugh he had. »Very well! You are further to reflect, Mr. Woodcourt,« becoming
dignified almost to severity, »that on the numerous difficulties, contingencies,
masterly fictions, and forms of procedure in this great cause, there has been
expended study, ability, eloquence, knowledge, intellect, Mr. Woodcourt, high
intellect. For many years, the - a - I would say the flower of the Bar, and the
- a - I would presume to add, the matured autumnal fruits of the Woolsack - have
been lavished upon Jarndyce and Jarndyce. If the public have the benefit, and if
the country have the adornment, of this great Grasp, it must be paid for in
money or money's worth, sir.«
    »Mr. Kenge,« said Allan, appearing enlightened all in a moment. »Excuse me,
our time presses. Do I understand that the whole estate is found to have been
absorbed in costs?«
    »Hem! I believe so,« returned Mr. Kenge. »Mr. Vholes, what do you say?«
    »I believe so,« said Mr. Vholes.
    »And that thus the suit lapses and melts away?«
    »Probably,« returned Mr. Kenge. »Mr. Vholes?«
    »Probably,« said Mr. Vholes.
    »My dearest life,« whispered Allan, »this will break Richard'
