“Iss!” said Andy, with a significant nod.
“And how do you know he 's an attorney?”
“I seen him!” replied the other, with a grin; “and I locked the door on him.”
“What for?”
“What for! what for, is it? Oh, murther, murther!” whined the old creature, who in this unhappy question thought he read the evidence of his poor master's wreck of intellect. It was indeed no slight shock to him to hear that Peter Dalton had grown callous to danger, and could listen to the terrible word he had uttered without a sign of emotion.
“I seen the papers with a red string round 'em,” said Andy, as though by this incidental trait he might be able to realize all the menaced danger.
“Sirrah, ye 're an old fool!” said Dalton, angrily; and, jerking the key from his trembling fingers, he pushed past him, and ascended the stairs.
If Dalton's impatience had been excited by the old man's absurd terrors and foolish warnings, his own heart was not devoid of a certain vague dread, as he slowly wended his way upwards. It was true he did not partake of old Andy's fear of the dread official of the law. Andy, who, forgetting time and place, not knowing that they were in another land, where the King's writ never ran, saw in the terrible apparition the shadows of coming misfortune. Every calamity of his master's house had been heralded by such a visit, and he could as soon have disconnected the banshee with a sudden death, as the sight of an attorney with an approaching disaster.
It is true, Dalton did not go this far; but still old impressions were not so easily effaced. And as the liberated captive is said to tremble at the clanking of a chain, so his heart responded to the fear that memory called up of past troubles and misfortunes.
“What can he want with me now?” muttered he, as he stopped to take breath. “They 've left me nothing but life, and they can't take that. It 's not that I 'd care a great deal if they did! Maybe it's more bother about them titles; but I'll not trouble my head about them. I sold the land, and I spent the money; ay, and what 's more, I spent it at home among my own people, like a gentleman! and if I 'm an absentee it 's not my fault. I suppose he couldn't arrest me,” said he, after a pause; “but, God knows, they 're making new laws every day, and it 's hard to say if they 'll let a man have peace or ease in any quarter of the world before long. Well, well! there's no use guessing. I have nothing to sell nothing to lose; I suppose they don't make it a hanging matter even for an Irishman to live a trifle too fast.” And with this piece of reassuring comfort, he pulled up his cravat, threw back the breast of his coat, and prepared to confront the enemy bravely.