“Good evening, Dunn; I hope I see you well. My friend Captain Darcy—Mr. Dunn. We have just heard that the noted Freney has taken up his lodgings here, and are curious to see him.”
“I 'm afraid I must refuse your request, Mr. Daly; my orders are most positive about the admission of any one to the prisoner: there have been I can't say how many people here on the same errand since four o'clock, when he arrived.”
“I think I ought to be free of the house,” said Daly, laughing; “I matriculated here at least, if I didn't take out a high degree.”
“So you did, sir,” said Dunn, joining in the laugh. “Freney is in the very same cell you occupied for four months.”
“Come, come, then, you can't refuse me paying a visit to my old quarters.”
“There is another objection, and a stronger one,—. Freney himself declines seeing any one, and asked a special leave of the sheriff to refuse all comers admission to him.”
“This surprises me,” said Daly. “Why, the fellow has a prodigious deal of personal vanity, and I cannot conceive his having adopted such a resolution.”
“Perhaps I can guess his meaning,” said the jailer, shrewdly; “the greater number of those who came here, and also who tried to see him in Liverpool, were artists of one kind or other, wanting to take busts or profiles of him. Now, my surmise is, Freney would not dislike the notoriety, if it were not that it might be inconvenient one of these days. To be plain, sir, though he is doubly ironed, and in the strongest part of the strongest jail in Ireland, he is at this moment meditating on an escape, in the event of which he calculates all the trouble and annoyance it would give him to have his picture or his cast stuck up in every town and village of the kingdom. This, at least, is my reading of the mystery; but I think it is not without some show of probability.”
“Well, the objection could scarcely apply to me,” said Daly; “if his portrait be not taken by a more skilful artist than I am, he may be very easy on the score of recognition. Pray let me send in my name to him, and if he refuses to see me, I 'll not press the matter further.”
Partly from an old feeling of kindness towards Daly, Dunn gave no further opposition, but in reality he was certain that Freney's refusal would set the matter at rest. His surprise was consequently great when the turnkey returned with a civil message from Freney that he would be very glad to see Mr. Daly.