ights, and as the darkness was every moment
deepening, she resolved to watch them, for the purpose of tracing
M'Bride home to his lodgings. They, in the meantime, proceeded to
a public-house in the vicinity, into which both entered, and having
ensconced themselves in a little back closet off the common tap-room,
took their seats at a small round table, Norton having previously
ordered some punch. Giuty felt rather disappointed at this caution, but
in a few minutes a red-faced girl, with a blowzy head of hair strong
as wire, and crisped into small obstinate undulations of surface which
neither comb nor coaxing could smooth away, soon followed them with the
punch and a candle. By the light of the latter, Ginty perceived that
there was nothing between them but a thin partition of boards, through
the slits of which she could, by applying her eye or ear, as the case
might be, both see and hear them. The tap-room at the time was empty,
and Ginty, lest her voice might be heard, went to the bar, from whence
she herself brought in a glass of porter, and having taken her seat
close to the partition, overheard the following conversation:

"In half an hour he's to see you, then?" said Norton, repeating the
words with a face of inquiry.

"Yes, sir; in half an hour."

"Well, now," he continued, "I assure you I'm neither curious nor
inquisitive; yet, unless it be a very profound secret indeed, I give my
honor I should wish to hear it."

"There's others in your family would be glad to hear it as well as you,"
replied M'Bride.

"The earl has seen you once or twice before on the subject, I think?"

"He has, sir?"

"And this is the third time, I believe?"

"It will be the third time, at all events."

"Come, man," said Norton, "take your punch; put yourself in spirits for
the interview. It requires a man to pluck up to be able to speak to a
nobleman."

"I have spoken to as good as ever he was; not that I say anything to his
lordship's disparagement," replied M'Bride; "but I'll take the punch for
a better reason--because I I have a fellow feeling for it. And yet it
was my destruction, too; however, it can't be helped. Yes, faith, it
made me an ungrateful scoundrel; but, no matter!--sir, here's your
health! I must only, as they say, make the best of a bad bargain--must
bring my cattle to the best market."

"Ay," said Norton, dryly and significantly; "and so you think the old
earl, the respectable old nobleman, is your best chap