Two or three dirty hands were thrust thrust out to catch the gown of the woman , who was groping grope for the latch of the door .

On such an afternoon some score of members of the High Court of Chancery bar ought to be -- as here they are -- mistily engaged engage in one of the ten thousand stages of an endless cause , tripping trip one another up on slippery precedents , groping grope knee-deep in technicalities , running run their goat-hair and horsehair warded heads against walls of words and making a pretence pretence of equity with serious faces , as players might .