Page:Baboohurrybungsh00anstiala.djvu/265

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JABBERJEE, B.A.
243

intimate friend and fatherly benefactor, Hon'ble Sir Chetwynd Cummerbund, who will tell you——

The Judge (rising). Before we have the pleasure of seeing Sir Chetwynd here, Mr Jabberjee, there is a little formality you appear to have overlooked. The plaintiff's counsel will probably wish before you leave the box to put a few questions to you in cross-examination, and that must stand over till to-morrow. (At this, old Jab's jaw falls several holes.)

Note by Mr Jabberjee.Hereford Road, Bayswater.—I am excessively gratified by the result of my first day's trial, being already the established favourite and chartered libertine of the whole Court, who split their sides at my slightest utterances. So I am no longer immeasurably alarmed by the prospect of being crossly examined—especially since Witherington, Q.C., has abandoned his brief in despair to a tongue-tied junior, who is incompetent to exclaim Bo! to a goose. Indeed, I have some thoughts of declining haughtily to be interrogated by a mere underling.

The only fly in the ointment of my success is the utter indifference of Jessimina to my aforesaid triumphs. At the termination of the hearing to-day, I beheld her so deeply engrossed in smiling and cordial converse with the smartly-attired curly-headed young solicitor who is