ll as we could have hoped for.'

And Toole shook her trembling little hand very cordially, and there was
a very good-natured twinkle in his eye.

And Toole closed the door again, and they heard Sturk murmur something
more; and then the maid, who was within, was let out by Toole, and the
door closed and bolted again, and a sort of cooing and murmuring
recommenced.

After a while, Toole, absolutely pale, and looking very stern, opened
the door, and, said he, in a quiet way--

'Ma'am, may I send Katty down to the King's House, with a note to Mr.--a
note to the King's House, Ma'am--I thank you--and see, Katty, good girl,
ask to see the gentleman himself, and take his answer from his own
lips.'

And he tore off the back of a letter, and pencilled on it these words--

'MY DEAR SIR,--Dr. Sturk has been successfully operated upon by
me and another gentleman; and being restored to speech and recollection,
but very weak, desires earnestly to see you, and make an important
disclosure to you as a justice of the peace.
'I am, Sir, your very obedient, humble servant,
'THOMAS TOOLE.

Upon this note he clapt a large seal with the Toole arms, and when it
was complete, placed it in the hands of Katty, who, with her riding-hood
on and her head within it teeming with all sorts of wild conjectures and
horrible images, and her whole soul in a whirl of curiosity, hurried
along the dark street, now and then glinted on by a gleam through a
shutter, or enlivened by the jingle of a harpsichord, or a snatch of
talk and laughter heard faintly through the windows, and along the
Dublin-road to the gate of the King's House. The hall-door of this
hospitable mansion stood open, and a flood of red candle-light fell upon
one side of the gray horse, saddle, and holster pipes, which waited the
descent of Mr. Lowe, who was shaking hands with the hospitable colonel
at the threshold.

Katty was just in time, and the booted gentleman, in his surtout and
cape, strode back again into the light of the hall-door, and breaking
the seal, there read, with his clear cold eye, the lines which Toole had
pencilled, and thrusting it into his coat pocket, and receiving again
the fuddled butler's benedictions--he had given him half-a-crown--he
mounted his gray steed, and at a brisk trot, followed by his servant,
was, in little more than two minutes' time, at Dr. Sturk's door.

Moore, the barber, _