“Does he intend ever to reside there?”
“He talks of it, my Lord,” said Dunn, “the way men talk of something very meritorious that they mean to do—one day or other.”
“It went, I hear, for half its value,” remarked some one.
“A great deal above that, I assure you,” said Dunn. “Indeed, as property is selling now, I should not call the price a bad one.”
“Evidently Mr. Kellett was not of your mind,” said the former speaker, laughing.
“I 'm told he burst into court to-day and abused every one, from the Bench to the crier, called the sale a robbery, and the judge a knave.”
“Not exactly that. He did, it is true, interrupt the order of the Court, but the sale was already concluded. He used very violent language, and so far forgot his respect for the Bench as to incur the penalty of a committal.”
“And was he committed?” asked the Secretary.
“He was; but rather as a measure of precaution than punishment. The Court suspected him to be insane.” Here Dunn leaned over and whispered a few words in the Secretary's ear. “Nor was it without difficulty,” muttered he, in a low tone. “He continued to inveigh in the most violent tone against us all; declared he 'd never leave the Jail without a public apology from the Bench; and, in fact, conducted himself so extravagantly that I half suspected the judge to be right, and that there was some derangement in the case.”
“I remember Paul Kellett at the head of the grand jury of his county,” said one.