In the realm of ten­der-heart­ed attor­neys, none shone as bright­ly as Baines Carew, a man whose soul was as sen­si­tive as his legal mind was sharp. When­ev­er tales of dis­tress reached his ears from clients, his heart would swell with empa­thy, to the point where accept­ing pay­ments became a strug­gle, bur­dened by his over­whelm­ing com­pas­sion.

Such sen­si­tiv­i­ty often came at a per­son­al cost. The duties of his pro­fes­sion, such as fore­clos­ing mort­gages, suing, and even the act of dis­train­ing for unpaid rent, inflict­ed upon him a deep emo­tion­al tur­moil. Despite the manda­to­ry nature of these tasks, each action car­ried with it a weight of sor­row, a tes­ta­ment to Carew’s pro­found con­nec­tion to the human con­di­tion.

The costs Carew could bill his clients for nev­er tru­ly com­pen­sat­ed for the emo­tion­al invest­ments he made into each case. Yet, with­in the bounds of pro­fes­sion­al­ism, he endeav­ored to sig­ni­fy his sym­pa­thies through mon­e­tary sums, albeit know­ing no fig­ure could encap­su­late the mag­ni­tude of his com­pas­sion.

Among his clien­tele, Cap­tain Bagg emerged as a fig­ure of par­tic­u­lar con­cern. Bagg, bur­dened by a mar­riage that once promised joy but had since devolved into tor­ment, sought Carew’s coun­sel for a sep­a­ra­tion from his wife. Her relent­less jests had trans­formed from endear­ing to unbear­able, prompt­ing Bagg to pur­sue relief under the advice of his empa­thet­ic attor­ney.

Bag­g’s plight moved Carew deeply, elic­it­ing tears and shock at the notion of dis­solv­ing what appeared to be an illus­tri­ous union. The sit­u­a­tion was indeed grave: a sane woman tor­ment­ing her hus­band by treat­ing him as a pet, a ‘Dicky bird’, forced to mim­ic its chirp­ings and perch upon a stick. Such was the absur­di­ty that Bagg endured, a tes­ta­ment to a mat­ri­mo­ni­al bond frayed by unkind­ness and jest.

This bal­lad, with its blend of humor and sor­row, sketch­es the por­trait of an attor­ney whose heart bleeds for the woes of his clients, encap­su­lat­ing the tragi­com­e­dy of life and the pecu­liar tri­als faced with­in the cham­bers of law and mar­riage alike.