- enced man might come a dreadful cropper in a case
of this kind. I believe myself in a moderate amount of speculation, but not in a capital charge.'
"'It's her only chance,' said the Irishman.
"'I am afraid,' said I, 'her attorneys are not willing to provide her with it at the risk of decency.'
"'There's your Saxon,' said he. 'Even when they hang a woman, they insist on decency. Praise be to the saints, we haven't got any decency in our dirty old island.'
"'No,' said I; 'but you've got a good deal of superstition. Whatever put this fellow Northcote into your wild head? I never remember to have heard of him in court.'
"'I don't care what you've heard of him,' said the Irishman, 'this is where he gets his chance. He'll bring us luck.'
"'Luck!' said I. 'A lawyer's luck is based on common sense and the capacity to see into the future.'
'We crack-brained Celts possess that capacity,' said Tobin. 'You can come and tell me on Monday whether I've been wrong.'
"'Is Northcote an Irishman, too?' I asked, feeling myself beginning to waver; and I don't mind confessing that I have never been able to withstand Michael Tobin from the first hour I met him.
"'I've only seen the man twice,' said he; 'but if he doesn't carry a drop of the Celt under his waistcoat, Cork was not my birthplace.'
"'Have you seen him in court?'
"'Not I. The first time I saw him he was addressing a few well-chosen remarks, quoting the pagan philosophers, to a select gathering of the un-
