And I assure you, as I walked back to my own room, I was in no very complaisant humour: thought my uncle and Mr.Romaine to have played knuckle-bones with my life and prospects; cursed them for it roundly; had no wish more urgent than to avoid the pair of them; and was quite knocked out of time, as they say in the ring, to find myself confronted with the lawyer.
He stood on my hearthrug, leaning on the chimney-piece, with a gloomy, thoughtful brow, as I was pleased to see, and not in the least as though he were vain of the late proceedings.
'Well ?' said I.

'You have done it now!' 'Is he gone ?' he asked.
'He is gone,' said I.

'We shall have the devil to pay with him when he comes back.' 'You are right,' said the lawyer, 'and very little to pay him with but flams and fabrications, like to-night's.' 'To-night's ?' I repeated.
'Ay, to-night's!' said he.
'To-night's _what_ ?' I cried.
'To-night's flams and fabrications.' 'God be good to me, sir,' said I, 'have I something more to admire in your conduct than ever _I_ had suspected?
You cannot think how you interest me! That it was severe, I knew; I had already chuckled over that.

But that it should be false also! In what sense, dear sir ?' I believe I was extremely offensive as I put the question, but the lawyer paid no heed.
'False in all senses of the word,' he replied seriously.

'False in the sense that they were not true, and false in the sense that they were not real; false in the sense that I boasted, and in the sense that I lied.
How can I arrest him?
Your uncle burned the papers! I told you so--but doubtless you have forgotten--the day I first saw you in Edinburgh Castle.