Perhaps I may tell you some other time a few of the amusing incidents that I have seen there.

At last my case is called.

It is as clear as daylight, but the rascally pettifogger is there with a long-prepared speech, he holds in his hand a small volume of the codified law, and quotes paragraphs which no amount of human ingenuity can make to bear upon the subject.

Perhaps the previous decision is confirmed; perhaps it is reversed; in either case, I have lost a second day and exhausted more patience than I can conveniently spare.

And something even worse may happen, as I know by experience.