And so he is taken to his
corner by his client and dosed with another L100. Then all his ardour
returns. He sees the thing as clear as daylight--the radiant innocence of
the plaintiff, the black perfidy of the defendant. To-morrow evening the
vision will have faded again, but another L100 will make it as plain as
ever. Yes, it is a good word--"refresher"--a candid word, an honest word.
It puts the relation on a sound business footing. There is no sham
sentiment about it. Give me another refresher, says Buzfuz, and I'll shed
another pailful of tears for you, and blacken both the defendant's eyes for
him.
But as I read of these princely earnings I could not help thinking of what
an irrational world this is in the matter of rewards. Here are a couple of
lawyers hurling epithets and "cases" at each other at L100 a day. At the
end a verdict is given for this side or that, and outside the people
concerned no one is a penny the better or worse. And not many miles away
hundreds of thousands of men are living in the mud of rat-infested
trenches, with the sky raining destruction upon them, and death and
mutilation the hourly incident of their lives.
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