less reason did he see to rejoice in the alliance. Even
before misfortune had affected his intellect, his temper was violent,
and his nature impracticable. Always yielding to impulse far more than
to mature judgment, he rushed madly on, scrambling from difficulty
to difficulty, and barely extricated from one mishap till involved in
another.

Such aid as he could proffer, therefore, promised little, and Dan felt
more than half disposed to relinquish it. This, however, should be done
with all respect to the feelings of Curtis, and, reflecting in what way
the object could best be compassed, MacNaghten slowly sauntered onwards
to the appointed place. It was not without some difficulty that he
at last discovered the miserable lane, at the entrance to which a
jaunting-car was now waiting,--a mark of aristocratic intercourse
which seemed, by the degree of notice it attracted, to show that such
equipages rarely visited this secluded region. MacNaghten's appearance,
however, soon divided public curiosity with the vehicle, and he
was followed by a ragged gathering of every age and sex, who very
unceremoniously canvassed the object of his coming, and with a most
laudable candor criticised his look and appearance. Although poor and
wretched in the extreme, none of them asked alms, nor seemed in
the slightest degree desirous of attracting attention to their own
destitution.

"Is it a lodgin' yer honer wants?" whispered an old fellow on crutches,
sidling close up to MacNaghten, and speaking in a confidential tone.
"I 've a back room looks out on the Poddle, for two shillings a week,
furnished."

"I've the elegant place Mary Murdoch lived in for ten months, yer honer,
in spite of all the polis', and might be livin' there yet, if she did
n't take into her head to go to Fishamble Street playhouse one night and
get arrested," cried a one-eyed old hag, with a drummer's coat on.

"He does n't want a room,--the gentleman is n't the likes of them that
comes here," growled out a cripple, who, with the sagacity that often
belongs to the maimed, seemed better to divine Dan's motives.

"You 're right, my lad; I was trying to find out where a friend of mine
lived,--Mr. Curtis."

"Faix, ould Joe has company this mornin'," said the first speaker. "It
was to see him that the fat man came on the jaunting-car."

"Are yiz goin' to try him agen?" said a red-eyed, fierce-looking woman,
whose face was a mass of bruises.

"Sure the gentleman isn