Good take on Vholes, JUDE. And did you notice....another Dickens specialty, juxtaposing little scenes that suggest the truth of a matter to the reader: Vholes and Richard Carstone in consultation:“Vholes, buttoned up in body and mind, looks at him attentively. All the while, Vholes’s official cat watches the mouse’s hole.”.
The legal scene has always had a bad rep. Maybe Dickens explains it here. According to him, with a great many people, the question of Wrong and Right is “quite an extraneous consideration”, as JUDE pointed out. Considering the business and legal scandals that are all
too present today, he could be right. “The one great principle of the English law is, to make business for itself. “ "Let them but once clearly perceive that its grand principle is to make business for itself at their expense, and surely they will cease to grumble.’
There are, of course, exceptions to all this and some fine men are in law. Nevertheless, we
have not ceased to grumble over what is widely perceived as the primary notivation of lawyers.