a low voice, looking
cautiously at the father, as if he didn't wish that he should hear him--

"It was surely your honor took away Lord Handicap's daughter when
you wor an ensign--the handsome ensign, as they called you in the
forty-seventh? Eh? faix I knew you the minute I looked at you."

"Ha, ha, ha! Do you know what, father? He says I'm the handsome ensign
of the forty-seventh, that took away Lord Handicap's daughter."

"The greatest beauty in all England," added the pedlar; "an' I knew him
at wanst, your honor."

"Well, Dick, that's a compliment, at any rate," replied the father.

"Were you ever in the forty-seventh?" asked the son, smiling.

"Ah, ah!" returned the pedlar, with a knowing wink, "behave yourself,
captain; I'm not so soft as all that comes to; but sure as I have
a favor to ax from his honor, your father, I'm glad to have your
assistance. Faix, by all accounts you pleaded your own cause well, at
any rate; and I hope you'll give me a lift now wid his honor here."

Dick the younger laughed heartily, but really had not ready virtue
sufficient about, to disclaim the pedlar's compliment.

"Come, then," he added; "let us hear what your favor is?"

"Oh, thin, thank you, an' God bless you, captain. It's this: only to
know if you'd be good enough to grant a new lease of Cargah Farm to
young Condy Dalton; for the ould man, by all accounts, is not long for
this world."

Both turned their eyes upon him with a look of singular astonishment.

"Who are you at all, my good fellow?" asked the father; "or what devil
drove you here on such an impudent message? A lease to the son of that
ould murderer and his crew of beggars! That's good, Dick! Well done,
soger! will you back him in that, captain? Ha, ha, ha! D--n me, if I
ever heard the like of it!"

"I hope you will back me, captain," said the pedlar.

"Upon what grounds, comrade? Ha, ha, ha! Go on! Let us hear you!"

"Why, your honor, bekaise he's best entitled to it. Think of what it
was when he got it, an' think of what it is now, and then ax
yourselves--'Who raised it in value an' made it worth twiste what it
was worth?' Wasn't it the Daltons? Didn't they lay out near eight hundre
pounds upon it? An, didn't you, at every renewal, screw them up--beggin'
your pardon, gintlemen--until they found that the more they improved it
the poorer they were gettin'? An' now that it lies there worth double
its value, an' they that made it so (to put money into your