ow is that, my lord?" asked Norton, with an interest which he could
scarcely disguise.

"Why, he mentioned something of a conversation you had, in which you
told him, you impudent dog--and coolly to his face, too--that you
patronized his son while in France, and introduced him to several
distinguished French noblemen, not one of whom, he had reason to
believe, ever existed except in your own fertile and lying imagination."

"And was that all?" asked Norton, who I began to entertain apprehensions
of Morty O'Flaherty; "did he mention nothing else?"

"No," replied Dunroe; "and you scoundrel, was not that a d--d deal too
much?"

Norton, now feeling that he was safe from Morty, laughed very heartily,
and replied,

"It's a fact, sure enough; but then, wasn't it on your lordship's
account I bounced? The lie, in point of fact, if it can be called one,
was, therefore, more your lordship's lie than mine."

"How do you mean by 'if it can be called one'?"

"Why, if I did not introduce you to real noblemen, I did to some
spurious specimens, gentlemen who taught you all the arts and etiquette
of the gaming-table, of which, you know very well, my lord, you were
then so shamefully ignorant, as to be quite unfit for the society of
gentlemen, especially on the continent."

"Yes, Tom, and the state of my property now tells me at what cost you
taught me. You see these tenants say they have not money, plead hard
times, failure of crops, and depreciation of property."

"Ay, and so they will plead, until I take them in hand."

"And, upon my soul, I don't care how soon that may be."

"Monster of disobedience," said Norton, ironically, "is it thus you
speak of a beloved parent, and that parent a respectable old peer? In
other words, you wish him in kingdom come. Repent, my lord--retract
those words, or dread 'the raven of the valley'."

"Faith, Tom, there's no use in concealing it. It's not that I wish him
gone; but that I long as much to touch the property at large, as you the
agency. It's a devilish tough affair, this illness of his."

"Patience, my lord, and filial affection."

"I wish he would either live or die; for, in the first case, I could
marry this brave and wealthy wench of the baronet's, which I can't do
now, and he in such a state of health. If I could once touch the Gourlay
cash, I were satisfied. The Gourlay estates will come to me, too,
because there is no heir, and they go with this wench, who is a brave
wench