"
"Doubtless," said the persevering man of words. "Whenever I take up a
deed, for instance,--it is just the habit of the thing, Mr S----,--I
always look at it as a banker looks at a note. He could not for the life
of him gather one up without first ascertaining that it was genuine."
"Genuine!" exclaimed my uncle, thrown off his guard. "You do not suspect
that I have forged it?"
"Forged it! why, how could that enter your head, Mr S----? I should as
soon suspect you of forging a bank-note or coining a guinea. Ringing a
guinea, sir, does not at all imply that the payee suspects the payer to
be an adept in that ingenious and much-abused art. We should be
prodigously surprised if the payer were to start up in a tantrum, and
say, 'Do you suspect me, sir, of having coined it?'"
"Sir, if you came hither for the purpose of insulting _me_"----
"I came upon no such business, Mr S----; but, as you seem disposed to be
captious, I _will_ make free to say, and it would be the opinion of
ninety-nine hundredths of the profession, that it might possibly have
been a little more satisfactory to the heir-apparent had the witnesses
to this, the most solemn and important act of a man's life, been any
other than, firstly, a defunct sister to the party claiming the whole
residue: and secondly, Mr Gilbert Hodgon, his servant.
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