In vain did John sit and sigh in the City.

Clients were few and far between: scarcely enough to pay his rent.
And in vain did James, artistically robed, wander like the Evil One, from court to court, seeking what he might devour.

Occasionally he had the pleasure of taking a note for another barrister who was called away, which means doing another man's work for nothing.

Once, too, a man with whom he had a nodding acquaintance, rushed up to him, and, thrusting a brief into his hands, asked him to hold it for him, telling him that it would be on in a short time, and that there was nothing in it--"nothing at all." Scarcely had poor James struggled through the brief when the case was called on, and it may suffice to say that at its conclusion, the Judge gazed at him mildly, over his spectacles, and "could not help wondering that any learned counsel had been found who would consent to waste the time of the Court in such a case as the one to which he had been listening." Clearly James' friend would not so consent, and had passed on the responsibility, minus the fee.

On another occasion, James was in the Probate Court on motion day, and a solicitor--a real live solicitor--came up to him and asked him to make a motion (marked Mr .-- --, 2 gns.) for leave to dispense with a co-respondent.