He lost his situation, and after an absence spent in trying his powers elsewhere, came back to his native town, where, at the time of the foregoing events in Hintock, he gave legal advice for astonishingly small fees--mostly carrying on his profession on public-house settles, in whose recesses he might often have been overheard making country-people's wills for half a crown; calling with a learned voice for pen-and-ink and a halfpenny sheet of paper, on which he drew up the testament while resting it in a little space wiped with his hand on the table amid the liquid circles formed by the cups and glasses.

An idea implanted early in life is difficult to uproot, and many elderly tradespeople still clung to the notion that Fred Beaucock knew a great deal of law.
It was he who had called Melbury by name.

"You look very down, Mr.
Melbury--very, if I may say as much," he observed, when the timber-merchant turned.

"But I know--I know.

A very sad case--very.
I was bred to the law, as you know, and am professionally no stranger to such matters.