gave his name to a queer-looking
servant with wild scrubby hair, a dirty face, a tawdry livery, worse
for wear, which had manifestly been made for a larger man, and hung upon
its present possessor like a coat upon a clothes-horse; his cotton
stockings, meant to be white, and clumsy shoes, meant to be black, met
each other half-way, and split the difference in a pleasing neutral
tint. Leaving Furlong standing in the hall, he clattered up-stairs, and
a dialogue ensued between master and man so loud that Furlong could hear
the half of it, and his own name in a tone of doubt, with that of
"Egan," in a tone of surprise, and that of his "sable majesty" in a tone
of anger, rapidly succeeded one another; then such broken words and
sentences as these ensued--"fudge!--humbug!--rascally trick!--eh!--by
the hokey, they'd better take care!--put the scoundrel under the pump!"

Furlong more than half suspected it was to him this delicate attention
was intended, and began to feel uncomfortable: he sharpened his ears to
their keenest hearing, but there was a lull in the conversation, and he
could ascertain one of the gentler sex was engaged in it by the ogre-like
voice uttering, "Fudge, woman!--fiddle-de-dee!" Then he caught the words,
"perhaps," and "gentleman," in a lady's voice; then out thundered "that
rascal's carriage!--why come in that?--friend!--humbug!--rascal's
carriage!--tar and feather him, by this and that!"

Furlong began to feel very uncomfortable; the conversation ended; down
came the servant, to whom Furlong was about to address himself, when the
man said, "He would be with him in a minit," and vanished; a sort of
reconnoitering party, one by one, then passed through the hall, eyeing
the stranger very suspiciously, any of them to whom Furlong ventured a
word scurrying off in double-quick time. For an instant he meditated a
retreat, and, looking to the door, saw a heavy chain across it, the
pattern of which must have been had from Newgate. He attempted to
unfasten it, and as it clanked heavily, the ogre's voice from up-stairs
bellowed, "Who the d----l's that opening the door?" Furlong's hand
dropped from the chain, and a low growling went on up the staircase. The
servant whom he first saw returned.

"I fear," said Furlong, "there is some misappwehension."

"A what, sir?"

"A misappwehension."

"Oh, no, sir! it's only a mistake the master thought you might be
making; he thinks you mistuk the house, maybe, sir?"

"