The
simplicity and straightforwardness of his last question won by degrees
upon her judgment and reconciled her to her Inquisitor, the more so as
he was quiet but intense, and his whole soul in her case. She began to
respect his simple straightforwardness, his civility without a grain of
gallantry, and his caution in eliciting all the facts before he would
advise.
After he had written down his synopsis, looking all the time as if his
life depended on its correctness, he leaned back, and his ordinary but
mobile countenance was transfigured into geniality.
"Come," said he, "grandmamma has pestered you with questions enough;
now you retort--ask me anything--speak your mind: these things should
be attacked in every form, and sifted with every sieve."
Lady Bassett hesitated a moment, but at last responded to this
invitation.
"Sir, one thing that discourages me cruelly--my solicitor seems so
inferior to Mr. Bassett's. He can think of nothing but objections; and
so he does nothing, and lets us be trampled on: it is his being unable
to cope with Mr. Bassett's solicitor, Mr. Wheeler, that has led me in
my deep distress to trouble you, whom I had not the honor of knowing."
"I understand your ladyship perfectly. Mr. Oldfield is a respectable
solicitor, and Wheeler is a sharp country practitioner; and--to use my
favorite Americanism--you feel like fighting with a blunt knife against
a sharp one.
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