Toppleton's Client; Or, A Spirit in Exile

her I can do justice to my story in these limited headquarters or not, but I can try. It isn't a good fit, this body isn't, and I cannot help being consci

perceived you, and while your tale may be more or less affected by your consciousness of the strange, ready-made physiognomy you have assumed, I, neverth

reciate your generosity, for instance, in buying me this shape in order to give me at least a semblance of individuality, and I assure you that if I ca

r the tale of woe, was so searching that anything less stolid than the wooden head would have flinched. The Aunt Sallie stood it, however, without showing a trace of emot

xpression, "in fact, I earnestly wish we could have secured a ventriloquist's marionette instead of that thing you've got on. It

spirit from behind Toppleton's back. "I cannot

locality of the voice gave him such a shock, and the pulsation

?" he cried, as soon as he was calm enough to s

rs of misery, I find at last one who is willing to champion my cause. I only wanted to see how my second self looked in this chair. To my eyes I appear rather plain an

ton, graciously. "Only don't do i

irt for me, I'll begin-that's another uncomfortable thing about my situation at present. It's somewhat trying

ing himself down on his lounge, lit his pip

f," said the Sallie. "I've got

stop your mouth up with

. "Or there are holes in the ears, I

ird vocal exercises to-day without having you talk with your ears, b

and inasmuch as I haven't had a pipe for thirty years,

f which had come with the Aunt Sallie, and lighting them for th

to puff, "this is what I call comf

is right ear, "sixty years ago in a small house within a stone

bered the band stand at Buxton, it was situated at some considerable distance from anythi

, as I have said, within a stone's throw of what is now the band stand in the Buxton Park. The band stand may have been nearer the house in the old days than it is now,-that is an insignificant sort of a detail anyhow, and if

y court in the land as veracious on the face of it, whereas we might be called upon to prove

e forgot himself for a moment, and inhaled some of the smoke, so t

ot thought of that. But to resume. My parents were like most others of their class, poor but honest. My mother was a poetess with an annuity. My father was a non-resistant, a sort of for

urned Hopkins, "with pronounced leanings t

plain. If there were weeds in the garden, he would submit tamely, rather than take a hoe and eradicate them. He used to sigh once in awhile and condemn my mother's parents for leaving her so little that she could not afford to hire a man to keep our place in order, but further than this he did not murmur. My mother, on the other hand, was energetic in her special line. I've known that woman to

ist that?" queried Topp

spirit, "never utt

dinary man," observed Topplet

a genius in his way; but he was born tire

on to leave the Aunt Sallie for a moment. The

until the smoke has a chance to get out," he

ve to his health to get diluted with tobacco smoke. But, I say, that was a pretty tough condition of affairs in

her's trousseau lasted as long as she did, and father never needed anything more than the suit he was married in. Inheriting my mother's poetic traits, and my father's tendency to let things come as they might and go as they would, it is hardly strange that as I grew older I became addicted to habits of indecision; that I lacked courage when a slight display of that quality meant success; that I was invaria

rted, resenting the spirit's appropriation to his mother of the great singer's

Shakespeare, that she was frequently unable to distinguish her own poems from his, a condition of affairs which was the cause,

hen it develops into verbatim app

c or a triolet without any trouble; but I never knew when to stop, a failing not necessarily fatal to an epic, but death to a triolet. The true climaxes of my lucubrations were generally avoided, and miserably inadequate compromises adopted in their stead. My muse was a snivelling, weak-kneed sort of creature, who, had she been of this earth, would have belonged to the ranks of those who are addicted to smell

sgust manifested on his countenance, for to tell the truth he was thoroughly disapp

himself in his host's eyes. "I was strong in one particular. In matters pert

abandonment of right for the sake of peace is a crime. Meekness that subverts self-respect is an offence against soci

upon man's estate; and it is that strong religious fervour with which my spirit is still imbued that has made my cup so much the more bitter, since, as I have hinted, h

ery," said Toppleton, with a smile of sympathy;

vided for him, the smoke having by this time evacuated his new habitation. "I

ver became a lawyer?" interr

ame a lawyer, and at the time I lost my body

ge to take up a profession that requires nerve and an aggressi

he spirit, sadly. "I couldn't make up my mind between the pulpit and literature, so I compromised on the law, mastered it to a sufficient

asked uneasily, for he was afraid the spirit mi

matters of compromise, and cases that were not considered strong enough to take into court were brought to me in order that I might suggest methods of adjustment satisfactory to both parties. For three years I did a thriving business here, a

onfidence that it was his desire that he should inherit sixty thousand pounds more than the other brother, telling him, however, that he must get it for himself, since the written will of the dying man provided that the two sons should share and share alike. In spasmodic gasps the old man added that he would find the money concealed in a secret drawer in an old desk up in the attic, in sixty one-thousand pound notes. My client, realizing that his father could not last many minutes longer, an

and pounds, alleging that the money not having passed into my client's hands until after the testator's death, belonged to the estate, and could only be diverted t

I hope and pray may never puncture my professional epidermis,

nd that the money was in his hands one minute before his father's death instead of one minute after it, the plaintiff would not have a leg to stand on. Then it occurred to me 'this means trouble.' It means a long and tedious litigation. It means defeat, appeal, victory, appeal, defeat, appeal, on, on through all the cou

ion, I should say

d have been spared all that followed. It would have been better for all concerned, for I should have been in possession of myself to-

led Hopkins. "Tha

ed, I sat down right here by this window to write to Mr. Baskins to that effect. It was a beastly night out. The wind shrieked through the court there,

in,'

step was perceptible to the ear, moving across the carpet, and in a moment a rocking-chair owned by me began to sway to and fro, just as

an to feel

e being like yourself called on you as you have called on me?"

invisible, for as I sprang to my feet, my whole being palpitant with terror, the lamp on my table sputtered and went out; and then I saw, sitting luminous