supposed
to have been seen in our neighborhood yesterday, with sly suggestions
about looking after stable-doors, &c. I could bear it no longer. I
jumped up, and rang the bell violently.

"You know this Father Dyke, waiter? In what part of the country does he
live?"

"He's parish priest of Inistioge," said he; "the snuggest place in the
whole county."

"How far from this may it be?"

"It's a matter of five-and-forty miles; and by the same token, he said
he 'd not draw bridle till he got home to-night, for there was a fair
at Grague to-morrow, and if he was n't pleased with the baste he 'd sell
him there."

I groaned deeply; for here was a new complication, entirely unlooked
for. "You can't possibly mean," gasped I out, "that a respectable
clergyman would expose for sale a horse lent to him casually by a
friend?" for the thought struck me that this protest of mine should be
thus early on record.

The waiter scratched his head and looked confused. Whether another
version of the event possessed him, or that my question staggered his
convictions, I am unable to say; but he made no reply. "It is true,"
continued I, in the same strain, "that I met his reverence last night
for the first time. My friend Lord Keldrum made us acquainted; but
seeing him received at my noble friend's board, I naturally felt, and
said to myself, 'The man Keldrum admits to his table is the equal of any
one.' Could anything be more reasonable than that?"

"No, indeed, sir; nothing," said the waiter, obsequiously.

"Well, then," resumed I, "some day or other it may chance that you will
be called on to remember and recall this conversation between us; if so,
it will be important that you should have a clear and distinct memory of
the fact that when I awoke in the morning, and asked for my horse, the
answer you made me was--What was the answer you made me?"

"The answer I med was this," said the fellow, sturdily, and with an
effrontery I can never forget,--"the answer I med was, that the man that
won him took him away."

"You're an insolent scoundrel," cried I, boiling over with passion, "and
if you don't ask pardon for this outrage on your knees, I 'll include
you in the indictment for conspiracy."

So far from proceeding to the penitential act I proposed, the fellow
grinned from ear to ear, and left the room. It was a long time before I
could recover my wonted calm and composure. That this rascal's evidence
would be fatal to me if the qu