thumper; excuse me, I
say; and at all events I have the pleasure of drinking your health; and
if my conjecture be appropriate, here's also a somewhat closer adhesion
to the _veritas_ aforesaid to you!"

"Do you mean to insinuate that I'm stating what is not true?" said
Burke, assuming an offended look, which, however, he did not feel.

"No, sir," replied Finigan, retorting his look with one of indignant
scorn, "far be it from me to insinuate any such thing. I broadly, and
in all the latitudinarianism of honest indignation, assert that it is a
d--d lie, begging your pardon, and drinking to your moral improvement a
second time; and ere you respond to what I've said, it would be as well,
in order to have the matter copiously discussed, if you ordhered in
a fresh supply of liquor, and help yourself, for, if the proverb be
true--_in vino veritas_--there it is again, but truth will be out, you
see--who knows but we may come to a thrifle of it from you yet? Ha! ha!
ha! Excuse the jest, Mr. Hycy. You remember little Horace,--

"'Quid vetat ridentem dicere verum?'"

"Do you mean to say, sirra," said Hycy, "that I have stated a lie?"

"I mean to say that whoever asserts that I misrepresented you in any way
to Bryan M'Mahon, or ever cautioned him against you, states a lie of the
first magnitude--a moral thumper, of gigantic dimensions."

"Well, will you tell me what you did say to him?"

"What I did say," echoed Finigan. "Well," he added, after a pause,
during which he I surveyed Hycy pretty closely--having now discovered
that he was, in fact, only proceeding upon mere suspicion--"I believe
I must acknowledge a portion of the misrepresentation. I must, on
secondary consideration, plead guilty to that fact."

"I thought as much," said Hycy.

"Here then--," proceeded Finigan, with a broad and provoking grin
upon his coarse but humorous features, "here, Mr. Hycy, is what I
did say--says I, 'Bryan, I have a word to say to you, touching an
accomplished young gentleman, a friend of yours.'

"'What is that?' asked the worthy Beit-nardus.

"'It is regarding the all-accomplished Mr. Hyacinthus Burke,' I replied,
'who is a _homo-factus ad unguem_. Mr. Burke, Bryan,' I proceeded, 'is a
gentleman in the--hem--true sense of that word. He is generous, candid,
faithful, and honest; and in association wid all his other excellent
qualities, he is celebrated, among the select few who know him best,
for an extraordinary attachment t