'If I pay her costs for her,' said Mr Pickwick indignantly. 'A valuable

document, indeed!'

No ‘if’ in the case, my dear Sir,' said Perker triumphantly. 'There is

the very letter I speak of. Brought to my office by another woman at

nine o'clock this morning, before I had set foot in this place, or held

any communication with Mrs. Bardell, upon my honour.' Selecting the

letter from the bundle, the little lawyer laid it at Mr Pickwick's elbow,

and took snuff for two consecutive minutes, without winking.

Is this all you have to say to me?' inquired Mr Pickwick mildly.

Not quite,' replied Perker. 'I cannot undertake to say, at this moment,

whether the wording of the cognovit, the nature of the ostensible

consideration, and the proof we can get together about the whole

conduct of the suit, will be sufficient to justify an indictment for

conspiracy. I fear not, my dear Sir; they are too clever for that, I

doubt. I do mean to say, however, that the whole facts, taken together,

will be sufficient to justify you, in the minds of all reasonable men.

And now, my dear Sir, I put it to you. This one hundred and fifty

pounds, or whatever it may be - take it in round numbers - is nothing

to you. A jury had decided against you; well, their verdict is wrong,

but still they decided as they thought right, and it IS against you. You

have now an opportunity, on easy terms, of placing yourself in a much

higher position than you ever could, by remaining here; which would

only be imputed, by people who didn't know you, to sheer dogged,

wrongheaded, brutal obstinacy; nothing else, my dear Sir, believe me.

Can you hesitate to avail yourself of it, when it restores you to your

friends, your old pursuits, your health and amusements; when it

liberates your faithful and attached servant, whom you otherwise

doom to imprisonment for the whole of your life; and above all, when

it enables you to take the very magnanimous revenge - which I know,

my dear sir, is one after your own heart - of releasing this woman from

a scene of misery and debauchery, to which no man should ever be

consigned, if I had my will, but the infliction of which on any woman,

is even more frightful and barbarous. Now I ask you, my dear sir, not

only as your legal adviser, but as your very true friend, will you let slip

the occasion of attaining all these objects, and doing all this good, for

the paltry consideration of a few pounds finding their way into the

pockets of a couple of rascals, to whom it makes no manner of

difference, except that the more they gain, the more they'll seek, and

so the sooner be led into some piece of knavery that must end in a

crash? I have put these considerations to you, my dear Sir, very feebly

and imperfectly, but I ask you to think of them. Turn them over in

your mind as long as you please. I wait here most patiently for your

answer.'

The Pickwick Papers