clerk, on
hearing his voice in the hall, came out and requestedm him to step into
a back room, adding that his master, who was engaged, would see him the
moment he had despatched the person then with him. Thus shown, he was
separated from O'Halloran's office only by a pair of folding doors,
through which every word uttered in the office could be distinctly
heard; a circumstance that enabled O'Brien unintentionally to overhear
the following dialogue between the parties:

"Well, my good friend," said Kennedy to the stranger, who, it appeared,
had arrived before O'Brien only a few minutes, "I am now disengaged;
pray, let me know your business."

The stranger paused a moment, as if seeking the most appropriate terms
in which to express himself.

"It's a black business," he replied, "and the worst of it is I'm a poor
man."

"You should not go to law, then," observed the attorney. "I tell you
beforehand you will find it is devilish expensive."

"I know it," said the man; "it's open robbery; I know what it cost me
to recover the little pences that wor sometimes due to me, when I broke
myself lending weeny trifles to strugglin' people that I thought honest,
and robbed me aftherwards."

"In what way can my services be of use to you at present? for that I
suppose is the object of your calling upon me," said Kennedy.

"Oh thin, sir, if you have the grace of God, or kindness, or pity in
your heart, you can sarve me, you can save my heart from breakin'!"

"How--how, man?--come to the point."

"My son, sir, Connor, my only son, was taken away from his mother an'
me, an' put into jail yesterday mornin', an' he innocent; he was put in,
sir, for burnin' Bodagh Buie O'Brien's haggard, an' as God is above me,
he as much burnt it as you did."

"Then you are Fardorougha Donovan," said the attorney; "I have heard
of that outrage; and, to be plain with you, a good deal about yourself.
How, in the name of heaven, can you call yourself a poor man?"

"They belie me, sir, they're bitther enemies that say I'm otherwise."

"Be you rich or be you poor, let me tell you that I would not stand in
your son's situation for the wealth of the king's exchequer. Sell your
last cow; your last coat; your last acre; sell the bed from under you,
without loss of time, if you wish to save his life; and I tell you that
for this purpose you must employ the best counsel, and plenty of them.
The Assizes commence on this day week, so that you have not a s