n
at the knee--his cravat off--his shirt unbuttoned--his stockings half
down his lean legs--his feet in a pair of worsted slippers. The old
fellow was, in short, relaxed for the night, but he had his pen in his
hand.

"'I am only filling copies of _capiases_, Bob,' said he; 'light and
pleasant work, which does not distress one in an evening. There are a
few of your friends booked here. What has brought you to me so late
to-night?--but your father's son is always welcome. Ay, there were few
men like your father--never stagged in a lawsuit in his life--saw it
always out to the end--drove it from court to court;--if he was beat,
why, so much the worse, but he never fretted--if he won, faith! he
squeezed the opposite party well. Ay, he was a good-hearted, honest,
straightforward man. I wish I had a hundred such clients. So here's his
memory anyhow.'

"Six-and-Eightpence had a good right to give the toast, as what
constituted the excellence of my father in his eyes had moved most
of the good acres of Ballyburke out of the family into the hands of
the lawyers; but from filial duty I complied with the attorney's
request--the more readily, because I well knew, from long experience,
that his skill in punch-making was unimpeachable. So we talked about my
father's old lawsuits, and I got Barney into excellent humour, by
letting him tell me of the great skill and infinite adroitness which he
had displayed upon a multiplicity of occasions. It was not, however,
until we were deep in the second jug, and Six-and-Eightpence was
beginning to show symptoms of being _cut_, that I ventured to introduce
the subject of my visit. I did it as cautiously as I could, but the old
fellow soon found out my drift.

"'No,' hiccuped he--'Bob--'twont--'twont--do. Close as green--green wax.
Never te-tell profess-profess-professional secrets. Know her
expec--hiccup--tances to a ten-ten-penny. So you are after--after--her?
Ah, Bo-bob! She'll be a ca-catch--but not a wo-word from me. No--never.
Bar-ney Pe-pulverfta-taft is game to the last. Never be-betrayed ye-your
father. God rest his soul--he was a wo-worthy man.'

"On this recollection of the merits of my sainted sire, the attorney
wept; and in spite of all his professional determinations, whether the
potency of the fluid or the memory of the deceased acted upon him, I got
at the facts. Dosy had not more than a couple of hundred pounds in the
world--her mother's property was an annuity which expire