cleared away such intervening obstacles as a handkerchief, an end 
of wax candle, a flushed apple, an orange, a lucky penny, a cramp 
bone, a padlock, a pair of scissors in a sheath more expressively 
describable as promising young shears, a handful or so of loose 
beads, several balls of cotton, a needle-case, a cabinet collection 
of curl-papers, and a biscuit, all of which articles she entrusted 
individually and separately to Britain to hold, - is of no 
consequence.

Nor how, in her determination to grasp this pocket by the throat 
and keep it prisoner (for it had a tendency to swing, and twist 
itself round the nearest corner), she assumed and calmly 
maintained, an attitude apparently inconsistent with the human 
anatomy and the laws of gravity.  It is enough that at last she 
triumphantly produced the thimble on her finger, and rattled the 
nutmeg-grater:  the literature of both those trinkets being 
obviously in course of wearing out and wasting away, through 
excessive friction.

'That's the thimble, is it, young woman?' said Mr. Snitchey, 
diverting himself at her expense.  'And what does the thimble say?'

'It says,' replied Clemency, reading slowly round as if it were a 
tower, 'For-get and For-give.'

Snitchey and Craggs laughed heartily.  'So new!' said Snitchey.  
'So easy!' said Craggs.  'Such a knowledge of human nature in it!' 
said Snitchey.  'So applicable to the affairs of life!' said 
Craggs.

'And the nutmeg-grater?' inquired the head of the Firm.

'The grater says,' returned Clemency, 'Do as you - wold - be - done 
by.'

'Do, or you'll be done brown, you mean,' said Mr. Snitchey.

'I don't understand,' retorted Clemency, shaking her head vaguely.  
'I an't no lawyer.'

'I am afraid that if she was, Doctor,' said Mr. Snitchey, turning 
to him suddenly, as if to anticipate any effect that might 
otherwise be consequent on this retort, 'she'd find it to be the 
golden rule of half her clients.  They are serious enough in that - 
whimsical as your world is - and lay the blame on us afterwards.  
We, in our profession, are little else than mirrors after all, Mr. 
Alfred; but, we are generally consulted by angry and quarrelsome 
people who are not in their best looks, and it's rather hard to 
quarrel with us if we reflect unpleasant aspects.  I think,' said 
Mr. Snitchey, 'that I speak for Self and Craggs?'

'Decidedly,' said Craggs.

'And so, if Mr. Britain will oblige us with a mouthful of ink,' 
said Mr. Snitchey, returning to the papers, 'we'll sign, seal, and 
deliver as soon as possible, or the coach will be coming past 
before we know where we are.'

If one might judge from his appearance, there was every probability 
of the coach coming past before Mr. Britain knew where HE was; for 
he stood in a state of abstraction, mentally balancing the Doctor 
against the lawyers, and the lawyers against the Doctor, and their 
clients against both, and engaged in feeble attempts to make the 
thimble and nutmeg-grater (a new idea to him) square with anybody's 
system of philosophy; and, in short, bewildering himself as much as 
ever his great namesake has done with theories and schools.  But, 
Clemency, who was his good Genius - though he had the meanest 
possible opinion of her understanding, by reason of her seldom 
troubling herself with abstract speculations, and being always at 
hand to do the right thing at the right time - having produced the 
ink in a twinkling, tendered him the further service of recalling 
him to himself by the application of her elbows; with which gentle 
flappers she so jogged his memory, in a more literal construction 
of that phrase than usual, that he soon became quite fresh and 
brisk.

How he laboured under an apprehension not uncommon to persons in 
his degree, to whom the use of pen and ink is an event, that he 
couldn't append his name to a document, not of his own writing, 
without committing himself in some shadowy manner, or somehow 
signing away vague and enormous sums of money; and how he 
approached the deeds under protest, and by dint of the Doctor's 
coercion, and insisted on pausing to look at them before writing 
(the cramped hand, to say nothing of the phraseology, being so much 
Chinese to him), and also on turning them round to see whether 
there was anything fraudulent underneath; and how, having signed 
his name, he became desolate as one who had parted with his 
property and rights; I want the time to tell.  Also, how the blue 
bag containing his signature, afterwards had a mysterious interest 
for him, and he couldn't leave it; also, how Clemency Newcome, in 
an ecstasy of laughter at the idea of her own importance and 
dignity, brooded over the whole table with her two elbows, like a 
spread eagle, and reposed her head upon her left arm as a 
preliminary to the formation of certain cabalistic characters, 
which required a deal of ink, and imaginary counterparts whereof 
she executed at the same time with her tongue.  Also, how, having 
once tasted ink, she became thirsty in that regard, as tame tigers 
are said to be after tasting another sort of fluid, and wanted to 
sign everything, and put her name in all kinds of places.  In 
brief, the Doctor was discharged of his trust and all its