"My client," said Julia, "a simple, innocent property developer, had entered into a perfectly straightforward transaction which happened to involve a bank in Amsterdam and one or two companies in the Netherlands Antilles and which therefore happened to result in his having no tax to pay. Or rather, that's how it would have resulted if the case hadn't come before Welladay, who considers it the duty of every citizen to arrange his affairs in such a way as to maximize his liabilities to the Inland Revenue, and of his professional advisers to assist him in achieving that result."

The chagrin of a woman displaced in her lover's affections is as nothing compared with that of a barrister superseded in the favour of a leading firm of solicitors.

Despite every effort to attribute the desire of Miss Clementine Derwent for Cantrip's presence in Jersey to some proper and decorous motive, Ragwort had been unable to think of any.

"A girl in Clementine's position," continued Julia, "would no doubt reflect that there are two kinds of young men. On the one hand, there are those, such as yourself, my dear Ragwort, to whom the least one could offer would be the devotion of a lifetime and a profoundly spiritual regard almost untainted by the grossness of carnality. From the pursuit of young men of that kind Clementine is plainly debarred by her existing obligations. On the other hand, there are young men who might be persuaded to settle for something less. Young men - how shall I put it? - young men of obliging disposition. It is pretty generally known, I believe, that Cantrip is one of the latter sort."

"She accordingly made a bet with Cantrip that she could successfully defend her virtue against the most vigorous and determined attack on it."

"That," said Ragwort, "was the ostensible contract. In substance, I fear, it was neither more nor less than a sordid and degrading bargain for the provision of services of a most personal nature for the sum of five pounds - a sum, I should have thought, which even Cantrip would consider humiliatingly modest."