es?"

"You wrong me," said Cashel. "I would have lived in that cottage yonder,
without a thought or a wish for the costly pleasures you think have such
attractions for me."

"You had already sold it to your friend."

"Sold it I--never!--to whom?"

"I thought Linton had purchased it."

"Never!"

"Well, you gave it as a gift?"

"I did intend to do so; but seeing the value Corrigan puts upon it, I
will give Linton double--thrice the value, rather than part with it."

"What if he refuse?"

"He will not. Linton's fancies never run counter to solid advantages. A
thousand pounds, with him, is always twice five hundred, come with what
condition it may."

"But Linton may, for his own reasons, think differently here; his
proposal to marry seems as though it were part of some settled plan; and
if you have already given him a legal claim here, my opinion is that he
will uphold it."

"That I have never done; but my word is pledged, and to it he may hold
me, if he will. Meanwhile, I have seen Kennyfeck this morning. The man
Hoare has offered us a large sum on mortgage, and I have promised to
meet them both the day after to-morrow. If I read Tom aright, L10,000
will free me from every claim he has upon me."

"A heavy sum, but not ill spent if it liberate you from his friendship,"
cried Tiernay, eagerly.

"And so it shall."

"You promise me this--you give me your word upon it?"

"I do."

"Then there are good days in store for you. That man's intimacy has been
your bane; even when you thought least of it, his influence swayed
your actions and perverted your motives. Under the shadow of his evil
counsels your judgment grew warped and corrupted; you saw all things in
a false and distorted light; and your most fatal error of all was, that
you deemed yourself a 'gentleman.'"

"I have done with him forever," said Cashel, with slow, deliberate
utterance.

"Again I say, good days are in store for you," said Tiernay.

"I cannot live a life of daily, hourly distrust," said Cashel; "nor will
I try it. I will see him to-morrow; I will tell him frankly that I
am weary of his fashionable protectorate; that as a scholar in modish
tastes I should never do him credit, and that we must part. Our alliance
was ever a factitious one; it will not be hard to sever it."

"You mistake much," said Tiernay; "the partnership will not be so easily
relinquished by him who reaps all the profit."

"You read me only as a dupe," said Cashel