The old lawyer was shaking his law-box.
"Singular!" he exclaimed.

"He will make that mistake! What law, sir ?" Ripton read his error in the sternly painful expression of his father's face, and corrected himself.

"Gavelkind, sir." "Ah!" said Mr.Thompson, with a sigh of relief.

"Gravelkind, indeed! Gavelkind! An old Kentish"-- He was going to expound, but Sir Austin assured him he knew it, and a very absurd law it was, adding, "I should like to look at your son's notes, or remarks on the judiciousness of that family arrangement, if he had any." "You were making notes, or referring to them, as we entered," said Mr.
Thompson to the sucking lawyer; "a very good plan, which I have always enjoined on you.

Were you not ?" Ripton stammered that he was afraid he hid not any notes to show, worth seeing.
"What were you doing then, sir ?" "Making notes," muttered Ripton, looking incarnate subterfuge.
"Exhibit!" Ripton glanced at his desk and then at his father; at Sir Austin, and at the confidential clerk.