e. But his countenance was that of one
whose mind is absent and wandering. And he looked down on the ground, as
it seemed in profound and troubled abstraction; and, after a while, he
looked up again, and again glared on the cold pistols that hung before
him--ready for anything. And he took down one with a snatch and weighed
it in his hand, and fell to thinking again; and, as he did, kept opening
and shutting the pan with a snap, and so for a long time, and thinking
deeply to the tune of that castanet, and at last he roused himself, who
knows from what dreams, and hung up the weapon again by its fellow, and
looked about him.

The hall-door lay open, as Mary Matchwell had left it. Nutter stood on
the door-step, where he could hear faintly, from above stairs, the cries
and wails of poor, hysterical Mrs. Nutter. He remained there a good
while, during which, unperceived by him, Dr. Toole's pestle-and-mortar-boy,
who had entered by the back-way, had taken a seat in the hall. He was
waiting for an empty draught-bottle, in exchange for a replenished flask
of the same agreeable beverage, which he had just delivered; for physic
was one of poor Mrs. Nutter's weaknesses, though, happily, she did not
swallow half what came home for her.

When Nutter turned round, the boy--a sharp, tattling vagabond, he knew
him well--was reading a printed card he had picked up from the floor,
with the impress of Nutter's hob-nailed tread upon it. It was endorsed
upon the back, 'For Mrs. Macnamara, with the humble duty of her obedient
servant, M. M.'

'What's that, Sirrah?' shouted Nutter.

'For Mrs. Nutter, I think, Sir,' said the urchin, jumping up with a
start.

'Mrs. Nutter,' repeated he--'No--Mrs. Mac--Macnamara,' and he thrust it
into his surtout pocket. 'And what brings you here, Sirrah?' he added
savagely; for he thought everybody was spying after him now, and, as I
said, he knew him for a tattling young dog--he had taken the infection
from his master, who had trained him.

'Here, woman,' he cried to Moggy, who was passing again, 'give that
pimping rascal his ---- answer; and see, Sirrah, if I find you sneaking
about the place again, I'll lay that whip across your back.'

Nutter went into the small room again.

'An' how are ye, Jemmie--how's every inch iv you?' enquired Moggy of the
boy, when his agitation was a little blown over.

'I'm elegant, thank ye,' he answered; 'an' what's the matther wid ye
all? I cum through the kitchen,