Mr.Guppy, who has an inquiring mind in matters of evidence and who has been suffering severely from the lassitude of the long vacation, takes that interest in the case that he enters on a regular cross-examination of the witness, which is found so interesting by the ladies that Mrs.Snagsby politely invites him to step upstairs and drink a cup of tea, if he will excuse the disarranged state of the tea-table, consequent on their previous exertions.

Mr.Guppy yielding his assent to this proposal, Jo is requested to follow into the drawing-room doorway, where Mr.Guppy takes him in hand as a witness, patting him into this shape, that shape, and the other shape like a butterman dealing with so much butter, and worrying him according to the best models.

Nor is the examination unlike many such model displays, both in respect of its eliciting nothing and of its being lengthy, for Mr.Guppy is sensible of his talent, and Mrs.
Snagsby feels not only that it gratifies her inquisitive disposition, but that it lifts her husband's establishment higher up in the law.
During the progress of this keen encounter, the vessel Chadband, being merely engaged in the oil trade, gets aground and waits to be floated off.
"Well!" says Mr.Guppy.

"Either this boy sticks to it like cobbler's-wax or there is something out of the common here that beats anything that ever came into my way at Kenge and Carboy's." Mrs.Chadband whispers Mrs.Snagsby, who exclaims, "You don't say so!" "For years!" replied Mrs.Chadband.
"Has known Kenge and Carboy's office for years," Mrs.Snagsby triumphantly explains to Mr.Guppy.

"Mrs.Chadband--this gentleman's wife--Reverend Mr.Chadband." "Oh, indeed!" says Mr.Guppy.
"Before I married my present husband," says Mrs.Chadband.
"Was you a party in anything, ma'am ?" says Mr.Guppy, transferring his cross-examination.
"No." "NOT a party in anything, ma'am ?" says Mr.Guppy.
Mrs.Chadband shakes her head.
"Perhaps you were acquainted with somebody who was a party in something, ma'am ?" says Mr.Guppy, who likes nothing better than to model his conversation on forensic principles.
"Not exactly that, either," replies Mrs.Chadband, humouring the joke with a hard-favoured smile.
"Not exactly that, either!" repeats Mr.Guppy.