Whenever they come to the web of a smaller spider, whose larder seems well supplied, they rush upon his domain--pursue him to his hole--eat him up if they can--reject him if he is too tough for their maws, and quietly possess themselves of all the legs and wings they find dangling in his meshes: these spiders I call enemies--the world calls them lawyers!" Philip laughed: "And who are the first class of spiders ?" "Honest creatures who openly confess that they live upon flies.

Lawyers fall foul upon them, under pretence of delivering flies from their clutches.

They are wonderful blood-suckers, these lawyers, in spite of all their hypocrisy.

Ha! ha! ho! ho!" And with a loud, rough chuckle, more expressive of malignity than mirth, the man turned himself round, applied vigorously to his pipe, and sank into a silence which, as mile after mile glided past the wheels, he did not seem disposed to break.

Neither was Philip inclined to be communicative.