In The Old Men's Tale of the Queer Client verricht een echte attorney
soortgelijk werk. Maar ook 'agents' worden ingeschakeld:
'The draft was duly honoured, and the attorney, finding that his strong client
might be sefely relied upon, commenced his work in earnest. For more than
two years afterwards, Mr. Heyling [the Queer Client] would sit whole days
together in the office, poring over the papers they accumulated, and
reading again and again, his eyes gleaming with joy, the letters of
remonstrance, the prayers for a little delay, the representations of the certain
ruin in which the opposite party must be involved, which poured in, as suit
after suit, and process after process, was commenced. To all applications for
a brief indulgence, there was but one reply—the money must be paid. Land,
house, furniture, each in its turn, was taken under some one of the numerous
executions which were issued; and the old man himself would have been
immured in prison had he not escaped the vigilance of the officers, and
fled.
The implacable animosity of Heyling, so far from being satiated by the
succes of his persecution, increased a hundredfold with the ruin he inflicted.
On being informed of the old man's flight, his fury was unbounded. He
gnashed his teeth with rage, tore the hair from his head, and asailed with
horrid imprecations the men who had been entrusted with the writ. He was
only restored to comparative calmness of the certaity of discovering the
fugitive. Agents were sent in quest of him, in all directionsThe Pickwick
Papers chapter XXI)
In The Old Curiosity Shop, chaper 11ontmoeten wij Brass'an attorney of no
very good repute from Bevis Marks in the City of London. Juist dit 'of no very
good repute' laat zien hoe moeilijk een 'opgeleide' attorney (wat die opleiding
dan ook mog voorstellen) en een 'agent' Izijn zuster Sally) te onderscheiden zijn.
Beiden worden uitvoerig beschreven en zelfs geprotteteerd. Beginnen we met
Brass: Mr Quilp heeft zichzelf en zijn knechtje geïnstalleerd met zware pijpen:
These arrangments completed, Mr Quilp looked around him with
chuckling satisfacfio, and emarked that he called that comfort.
The legal gentleman, whose melodious name was Brass, might have it
comfort also but for two drawbacks; one was that he could by no exertion sit
easily in his chair, the seat of which was very hard, angular, slippery, and
sloping; the other was tobacco-smoke always caused him great internal
discomposure and annoyance. But as he was a creature of Mr Quilp,s and
had a thousand reasons for conciliating his good opinion, he tried to smile,
and nodded his acquiescence with the best grace he could assume.
