“Every man of them, sir; there's not a man in Dublin with a pair of black trousers that I could n't give you the history of.”
“That's practical, certainly,” said Sewell, adopting his phrase; and the other laughed pleasantly at the employment of it. “Whenever you have to announce persons that are strangers to you, and whose business you can't find out, mention that I am most busily engaged,—that persons of consequence are with me,—delay them, in short, and put them off for another day—”
“Till I can find out all about them?” broke in O'Reardon.
“Exactly.”
“And that's what I can do as well as any man in Ireland,” said the fellow, overjoyed at the thought of such congenial labor.
“I suppose you know a dun by the look of him?” asked Sewell, with a low, quiet laugh.
“Don't I, then?” was the reply.
“I 'll have none of them hanging about here,—mind that; you may tell them what you please, but take care that my orders are obeyed.”
“I will, sir.”
“I shall probably not come down every day to the office; it may chance that I may be absent a week at a time; but remember, I am always here,—you understand,—I am here, or I am at the Chief Baron's chambers,—somewhere, in short, about the Court.”