The Classical Scholar in Reduced Circumstances

You are, let us say, a young professional man in chambers or offices, incompetently guarded by an idiot boy whom you dare not trust with the responsibility of denying you to strangers. You hear a knock at your outer door, followed by conversation in the clerk's room, after which your salaried idiot announces "A Gentleman to see you. " Enter a dingy and dismal little man in threadbare black, who advances with an air of mysterious importance. "I think," he begins, "I 'ave the pleasure of speaking to Mr. -- -- " (_whatever your name is_.) "I take the liberty of calling, Mr. -- -- , to consult you on a matter of the utmost importance, and I shall feel personally obliged if you will take precautions for our conversation not being over'eard."

He looks grubby for a client -- but appearances are deceptive, and you offer him a seat, assuring him that he may speak with perfect security -- whereupon he proceeds in a lowered voice.