Joseph narrated his dealings with the bank.

'O, but I say, this won't do,' cried the lawyer. 'You've put your foot

in it. You had no right to do what you did.'

'The whole thing is mine, Michael,' protested the old gentleman. 'I

founded and nursed that business on principles entirely of my own.'

'That's all very fine,' said the lawyer; 'but you made an assignment,

you were forced to make it, too; even then your position was extremely

shaky; but now, my dear sir, it means the dock.'

'It isn't possible,' cried Joseph; 'the law cannot be so unjust as

that?'

'And the cream of the thing,' interrupted Michael, with a sudden shout

of laughter, 'the cream of the thing is this, that of course you've

downed the leather business! I must say, Uncle Joseph, you have strange

ideas of law, but I like your taste in humour.'

'I see nothing to laugh at,' observed Mr Finsbury tartly.

'And talking of that, has Morris any power to sign for the firm?' asked

Michael.

'No one but myself,' replied Joseph.

153

The Wrong Box