ast argued
Mr. Die. But at this point Herbert seemed to have views of his own:
he said that in the first place he must be with his mother; and then,
in the next place, as it was now clear that he was not to throw up
Castle Richmond--as it would not now behove him to allow any one else
to call himself master there,--it would be his duty to reassume the
place of master. "The onus probandi will now rest with them," he
said, repeating Mr. Prendergast's words; and then he was ultimately
successful in persuading even Mr. Die to agree that it would be
better for him to go to Ireland than to remain in London, sipping the
delicious honey of Chancery buttercups.

"And you will assume the title, I suppose?" said Mr. Die.

"Not at any rate till I get to Castle Richmond," he said, blushing.
He had so completely abandoned all thought of being Sir Herbert
Fitzgerald, that he had now almost felt ashamed of saying that he
should so far presume as to call himself by that name.

And then he and Mr. Prendergast went away and dined together, leaving
Mr. Die to complete his legal work for the day. At this he would
often sit till nine or ten, or even eleven in the evening, without
any apparent ill results from such effects, and then go home to his
dinner and port wine. He was already nearly seventy, and work seemed
to have no effect on him. In what Medea's caldron is it that the
great lawyers so cook themselves, that they are able to achieve half
an immortality, even while the body still clings to the soul? Mr.
Die, though he would talk of his bald head, had no idea of giving
way to time. Superannuated! The men who think of superannuation at
sixty are those whose lives have been idle, not they who have really
buckled themselves to work. It is my opinion that nothing seasons the
mind for endurance like hard work. Port wine should perhaps be added.

It was not till Herbert once more found himself alone that he fully
realized this new change in his position. He had dined with Mr.
Prendergast at that gentleman's club, and had been specially called
upon to enjoy himself, drinking as it were to his own restoration in
large glasses of some special claret, which Mr. Prendergast assured
him was very extraordinary.

"You may be as satisfied as that you are sitting there that that's
34," said he; "and I hardly know anywhere else that you'll get it."

This assertion Herbert was not in the least inclined to dispute. In
the first place, he was not q