ings I
have mentioned here. Somehow, I could not write to poor Fred Power; but you
must tell him from me that his noble conduct towards me was the last thing
I spoke of."

"What confounded nonsense you are talking!" said O'Shaughnessy, springing
from his seat and crossing the room with tremendous strides, "croaking away
there as if the bullet was in your thorax. Hang it, man, bear up!"

"But, Major, my dear friend, what the deuce are you thinking of? The few
things I mentioned--"

"The devil! you are not going over it all again, are you?" said he, in a
voice of no measured tone.

I now began to feel irritated in turn, and really looked at him for some
seconds in considerable amazement. That he should have mistaken, the
directions I was giving him and attributed them to any cowardice was too
insulting a thought to bear; and yet how otherwise was I to understand the
very coarse style of his interruption?

At length my temper got the victory, and with a voice of most measured
calmness, I said, "Major O'Shaughnessy, I am grateful, most deeply
grateful, for the part you have acted towards me in this difficult
business; at the same time, as you now appear to disapprove of my conduct
and bearing, when I am most firmly determined to alter nothing, I shall beg
to relieve you of the unpleasant office of my friend."

"Heaven grant that you could do so!" said he, interrupting me, while his
clasped hands and eager look attested the vehemence of the wish. He paused
for a moment, then, springing from his chair, rushed towards me, and threw
his arms around me. "No, my boy, I can't do it,--I can't do it. I have
tried to bully myself into insensibility for this evening's work,--I have
endeavored to be rude to you, that you might insult me, and steel my heart
against what might happen; but it won't do, Charley, it won't do."

With these words the big tears rolled down his stern cheeks, and his voice
became thick with emotion.

"But for me, all this need not have happened. I know it; I feel it. I
hurried on this meeting; your character stood fair and unblemished without
that,--at least they tell me so now; and I still have to assure you--"

"Come, my dear, kind friend, don't give way in this fashion. You have stood
manfully by me through every step of the road; don't desert me on the
threshold of--"

"The grave, O'Malley?"

"I don't think so, Major; but see, half-past six! Look to these pistols for
me. Are they likely to objec