Then Mr. Boffin, with his stick at his ear, like a familiar spirit explaining the office to him, sat staring at a little bookcase of Law Practice and Law Reports, and at a window, and at an empty blue bag, and at a stick of sealing-wax, and a pen, and a box of wafers, and an apple, and a writing-pad⁠—all very dusty⁠—and at a number of inky smears and blots, and at an imperfectly-disguised gun-case pretending to be something legal, and at an iron box labelled Harmon Estate , until Mr. Lightwood appeared.

Mr. Lightwood explained that he came from the proctor’s, with whom he had been engaged in transacting Mr. Boffin’s affairs.