the chair at the four o'clock commercial dinner if he were present. It was incumbent on him to stand forward and make a fight, more especially in the presence of Kantwise, who was by no means stanch to his order. Kantwise would at all times have been glad to have outsiders in the room, in order that he might puff his tables, and if possible effect a sale;—a mode of proceeding held in much aversion by the upright, old-fashioned, commercial mind.
'Sir,' said Mr. Moulder, having become very red about the cheeks and chin, 'I and this gentleman are going to have a bit of supper, and it aint accustomed to smoke in commercial rooms during meals, You know the rules no doubt if you're commercial yourself;—as I suppose you are, seeing you in this room.'
Now Mr. Moulder was wrong in his law, as he himself was very well aware. Smoking is allowed in all commercial rooms when the dinner has been some hour or so off the table. But then it was necessary that he should hit the stranger in some way, and the chances were that the stranger would know nothing about commercial law. Nor did he; so he merely looked Mr, Moulder hard in the face. But Mr. Kantwise knew the laws well enough, and as he saw before him a possible purchaser of metallic tables, he came to the assistance of the attorney.
'I think you are a little wrong there, Mr. Moulder; eh; aint you?' said he.
'Wrong about what?' said Moulder, turning very sharply upon his base-minded compatriot.
'Well, as to smoking. It’s nine o'clock, and if the gentleman———'
'I don’t care a brass farthing about the clock,' said the other, 'but when I'm going to have a bit of steak with my tea, in my own room, I chooses to have it comfortable.'
'Goodness me, Mr. Moulder, how many times have I seen you sitting there with a pipe in your mouth, and half a dozen gents eating their teas the while in this very room? The rule of the case I take it to be this; when———'
'Bother your rules.'
'Well; it was you spoke of them.'
'The question I take to be this,' said Moulder, now emboldened by the opposition he had received. 'Has the gentleman any right to be in this room at all, or has he not? Is he commercial, or is he——— miscellaneous? That’s the chat, as I take it.'
'You're on the square there, I must allow,' said Kantwise.
'James,' said Moulder, appealing with authority to the waiter, who had remained in the room during the controversy;—and now Mr. Moulder was determined to do his duty and vindicate his profession, let the consequences be what they might. 'James, is that gentleman commercial, or is he not?'
It was clearly necessary now that Mr. Dockwrath himself should
