' asked Michael.

'O, just the same, Mr Michael, just the way he'll be till the end,
worthy man!' was the reply. 'But ye'll not be the first that's asked me
that the day.'

'No?' said the lawyer. 'Who else?'

'Ay, that's a joke, too,' said Teena grimly. 'A friend of yours: Mr
Morris.'

'Morris! What was the little beggar wanting here?' enquired Michael.

'Wantin'? To see him,' replied the housekeeper, completing her meaning
by a movement of the thumb toward the upper storey. 'That's by his way
of it; but I've an idee of my own. He tried to bribe me, Mr Michael.
Bribe--me!' she repeated, with inimitable scorn. 'That's no' kind of a
young gentleman.'

'Did he so?' said Michael. 'I bet he didn't offer much.'

'No more he did,' replied Teena; nor could any subsequent questioning
elicit from her the sum with which the thrifty leather merchant had
attempted to corrupt her. 'But I sent him about his business,' she said
gallantly. 'He'll not come here again in a hurry.'

'He mustn't see my father, you know; mind that!' said Michael. 'I'm not
going to have any public exhibition to a little beast like him.'

'No fear of me lettin' him,' replied the trusty one. 'But the joke
is this, Mr Michael--see, ye're upsettin' the sauce, that's a clean
tablecloth--the best of the joke is that he thinks your father's dead
and you're keepin' it dark.'

Michael whistled. 'Set a thief to catch a thief,' said he.

'Exac'ly what I told him!' cried the delighted dame.

'I'll make him dance for that,' said Michael.

'Couldn't ye get the law of him some way?' suggested Teena truculently.

'No, I don't think I could, and I'm quite sure I don't want to,'
replied Michael. 'But I say, Teena, I really don't believe this claret's
wholesome; it's not a sound, reliable wine. Give us a brandy and soda,
there's a good soul.' Teena's face became like adamant. 'Well, then,'
said the lawyer fretfully, 'I won't eat any more dinner.'

'Ye can please yourself about that, Mr Michael,' said Teena, and began
composedly to take away.

'I do wish Teena wasn't a faithful servant!' sighed the lawyer, as he
issued into Kings's Road.

The rain had ceased; the wind still blew, but only with a pleasant
freshness; the town, in the clear darkness of the night, glittered with
street-lamps and shone with glancing rain-pools. 'Come, this is better,'
thought the lawyer to himself, and he walked on eastward, lending a
pleased ear to the wheels and the million foo