It was a very short memorandum, and it ran as follows: 'All will yet be well, if those shares be ready to-morrow morning.' 'Well, Mr.Scott,' said the lawyer, 'do you recognize the handwriting ?' Undy looked at it, and endeavoured to examine it closely, but he could not; his eyes swam, and his head was giddy, and he felt sick.

Could he have satisfied himself that the writing was not clearly and manifestly his own, he would have denied the document altogether; but he feared to do this; the handwriting might be proved to be his own.
'It is something like my own,' said he.
'Something like your own, is it ?' said Mr.Chaffanbrass, as though he were much surprised.

'Like your own! Well, will you have the goodness to read it ?' Undy turned it in his hand as though the proposed task were singularly disagreeable to him.

Why, thought he to himself, should he be thus browbeaten by a dirty old Newgate lawyer?
Why not pluck up his courage, and, at any rate, show that he was a man?
'No,' said he, 'I will not read it.' 'Then I will.

Gentlemen of the jury, have the goodness to listen to me.' Of course there was a contest then between him and the lawyers on the other side whether the document might or might not be read; but equally of course the contest ended in the judge's decision that it should be read.