B-Berry and I Look Back Read Online Free PDF Page B

don’t wonder Cranbrook was cross. I wish you’d been before me. I’d have made you think. And now go back for a minute. Just now you mentioned Eve, the Chancery Judge. And you said you’d bearded him when no one else in your chambers would touch the case. May we have that reminiscence? Or is it as obscene as it sounds?”
    I began to laugh.
    “There’s nothing obscene about it. It’s really more of a side-light on the spirit and manners of the Bar – in 1913, any way.”
    “Proceed,” said Berry.
    “Well, a brief came into Chambers one Wednesday afternoon – pretty late, it was, I think, about five o’clock. The senior clerk was out, but the junior took it in. When the senior clerk returned, he saw at once that it was a Chancery brief.
    “Now as, no doubt, you know, the procedure in the Chancery Courts is entirely different to that in the Common Law Courts and Chancery matters are handled by Chancery men. And Chancery’s a very close borough – at least, it used to be. But we were Common Lawyers in Number One, Brick Court.
    “The name of the head of my Chambers was on the brief, but he was down in the country doing some motoring case; so the senior clerk rang up the firm of solicitors who’d sent the brief, thanked them politely and said there was some mistake.
    “‘No, there isn’t,’ said the managing clerk. ‘We’d like Mr Harker to do it, although he’s not a Chancery man.’
    “‘Well, I don’t think he will,’ said our clerk. ‘It’s not his line. Any way, he’s down in the country and won’t be back till late. And I see it’s fixed for tomorrow afternoon.’
    “‘Well, try him,’ said the other. ‘It’s only an application – won’t take him a quarter of an hour.’
    “‘What if he won’t?’ said our clerk.
    “‘You’ve other gentlemen in Chambers. Give it to one of them. It’s a loser, any way. Eve will never grant it. But it’s got to be made.’
    “So our clerk said, ‘All right’ and put it on Harker’s table against his return.”
    “Nice sort of solicitors,” said Berry.
    “They were only acting as agents for a North Country firm. As like as not, they didn’t do Chancery work. But they knew and liked Harker and thought it best to go to someone they knew. Besides, they were up against time.
    “Well, Harker never got back till seven o’clock – to London, I mean. So he never came to Chambers, but went straight home. When he arrived the next morning, there was the brief on the table, waiting for him. He took it up and looked at the back-sheet.
    “‘What’s this?’ he said. ‘This ought to have gone to the other side of the road.’
    “I’d better explain that saying. The Inner and Middle Temple are Common Law Inns of Court: and The Temple lies south of Fleet Street. Lincoln’s Inn is the home of the Chancery Bar: and that lies north of Fleet Street and so, as we always said, ‘on the other side of the road.’”
    “What about Gray’s Inn?” said Jonah.
    “I can’t be sure,” I said, “but I think some Chancery men were members of that. Common Lawyers certainly were. Birkenhead’s Inn was Gray’s Inn.
    “And now to go back.
    “The clerk explained the position and Harker heard him out.
    “Then –
    “‘I’m not going to do it,’ he said. ‘I’d like to oblige them, but I’ve been at the Bar too long to go out of my ground and make a fool of myself in a Chancery Court. Before Eve, too. No thank you.’
    “When the clerk brought it to me, I had a look at the back-sheet and shook my head. ‘Nothing doing,’ I said. ‘Try somebody else.’
    “Well, no one would take it on. So the clerk came back to me. ‘They’re all afraid, sir,’ he said. ‘Well, so am I,’ I said. ‘He can’t eat you, sir. Have a look at the case.’ Just then his telephone went, so he laid the brief on my table and left the room. I eyed it uncertainly. I wasn’t sure Eve couldn’t eat me, but I was rather ashamed of being afraid. Harker couldn’t