Thomas, keep
your temper within bounds, or if you don't, a' must only go home again,
and keep my secret to myself. You have treated me very badly, Sir
Thomas; you have insulted me, Sir Thomas; you have grossly offended
me, Sir Thomas, in your own house, too, and without the slightest
provocation. A' have told you that a' know everything about the fellow
in the inn; and now, sir, you may thank the treatment a' received that
a' simply tell you that, and have the honor of bidding you good day."

"Crackenfudge," replied. Sir Thomas, who in an instant saw his error,
and felt in all its importance the value of the intelligence with which
the other was charged, "I beg your pardon; but you may easily see that I
was not--that I am not myself."

"You pledge your honor, Sir Thomas, that you will get me the magistracy?
A' know you can if you set about it. A' declare to God, Sir Thomas,
a' will never have a happy day unless I'm able to write J. P. after my
name. A' can think of nothing else. And, Sir Thomas, listen to me; my
friends--a' mean my relations--poor, honest, contemptible creatures, are
all angry with me, because a' changed my name to Crackenfudge."

"But what has this to do with the history of the fellow in the inn?"
replied Sir Thomas. "With respect to the change of your name, I have
been given to understand that your relations have been considerably
relieved by it."

"How, Sir Thomas?"

"Because they say that they escape the disgrace of the connection;
but, as for myself," added the baronet, with a peculiar sneer, "I don't
pretend to know anything about the matter--one way or other. But let it
pass, however; and now for your intelligence."

"But you didn't pledge your honor that you would get me the magistracy."

"If," said. Sir Thomas, "the information you have to communicate be of
the importance I expect, I pledge my honor, that whatever man can do to
serve you in that matter, I will. You know I cannot make magistrates at
my will--I am not the lord chancellor."

"Well, then, Sir Thomas, to make short work of it, the fellow's name is
Harry Hedles. He was clerk to the firm of Grinwell and Co., the great
tooth-brush manufacturers--absconded with some of their cash, came
over here, and smuggled himself, in the shape of a gentleman, into
respectable families; and a'm positively informed, that he has succeeded
in seducing the affections, and becoming engaged to the daughter and
heiress of a wealthy baronet."

Th