‘Well, well,’ said Kearney, ‘he has done you a good turn, anyhow—he has got Peter Gill out of the country.’
‘And it’s the one thing that I can’t forgive him, Mat, just the one thing that’s fretting me now. I was living in hopes to see that scoundrel Peter on the table, and Counsellor Holmes baiting him in a cross-examination. I wanted to see how the lawyer wouldn’t leave him a rag of character or a strip of truth to cover himself with. How he’d tear off his evasions, and confront him with his own lies, till he wouldn’t know what he was saying or where he was sitting! I wanted to hear the description he would give of him to the jury; and I’d go home to my dinner after that, and not wait for the verdict.’
‘All the same, I’m glad we’re rid of Peter.’
‘Of course you are. You’re a man, and well pleased when your enemy runs away; but if you were a woman, Mat Kearney, you’d rather he’d stand out boldly and meet you, and fight his battle to the end. But they haven’t done with me yet. I’ll put that little blackguard attorney, that said my letter was a lease, into Chancery; and it will go hard with me if I don’t have him struck off the rolls. There’s a small legacy of five hundred pounds left me the other day, and, with the blessing of Providence, the Common Pleas shall have it. Don’t shake your head, Mat Kearney. I’m not robbing any one. Your daughter will have enough and to spare—’
‘Oh, godmother,’ cried Kate imploringly.
‘It wasn’t I, my darling, that said the five hundred would be better spent on wedding-clothes or house-linen. That delicate and refined suggestion was your father’s. It was his lordship made the remark.’
It was a fortunate accident at that conjuncture that a servant should announce the arrival of Mr. Flood, the Tory J.P., who, hearing of Donogan’s escape, had driven over to confer with his brother magistrate. Lord Kilgobbin was not sorry to quit the field, where he’d certainly earned few laurels, and hastened down to meet his colleague.