mediate anticipation of something dreaded
and dreadful. I was instantly convinced that O'Connor had quarrelled
with Fitzgerald, and I knew that if such were the case, nothing short
of a miracle could extricate him from the consequences. I signed to
M'Donough to lead the way, and we entered the little study together.
O'Connor was standing with his back to the fire; on the table lay the
breakfast-things in the disorder in which a hurried meal had left them;
and on another smaller table, placed near the hearth, lay pen, ink,
and paper. As soon as O'Connor saw me, he came forward and shook me
cordially by the hand.

'My dear Purcell,' said he, 'you are the very man I wanted. I have got
into an ugly scrape, and I trust to my friends to get me out of it.'

'You have had no dispute with that man--that Fitzgerald, I hope,' said
I, giving utterance to the conjecture whose truth I most dreaded.

'Faith, I cannot say exactly what passed between us,' said he, 'inasmuch
as I was at the time nearly half seas over; but of this much I am
certain, that we exchanged angry words last night. I lost my temper most
confoundedly; but, as well as I can recollect, he appeared perfectly
cool and collected. What he said was, therefore, deliberately said, and
on that account must be resented.'

'My dear O'Connor, are you mad?' I exclaimed. 'Why will you seek to
drive to a deadly issue a few hasty words, uttered under the influence
of wine, and forgotten almost as soon as uttered? A quarrel with
Fitzgerald it is twenty chances to one would terminate fatally to you.'

'It is exactly because Fitzgerald IS such an accomplished shot,'
said he, 'that I become liable to the most injurious and intolerable
suspicions if I submit to anything from him which could be construed
into an affront; and for that reason Fitzgerald is the very last man to
whom I would concede an inch in a case of honour.'

'I do not require you to make any, the slightest sacrifice of what
you term your honour,' I replied; 'but if you have actually written a
challenge to Fitzgerald, as I suspect you have done, I conjure you to
reconsider the matter before you despatch it. From all that I have heard
you say, Fitzgerald has more to complain of in the altercation which has
taken place than you. You owe it to your only surviving parent not to
thrust yourself thus wantonly upon--I will say it, the most appalling
danger. Nobody, my dear O'Connor, can have a doubt of your courage; and