“Exactly; you have it all perfectly.”
“Bless your heart, boy, there 's nothing easier; if I were in your place, should arrange the affair in less than a week. I 'd have fits,—strong fits,—and burn all the papers in the office during the paroxysm. I 'd make a pile of deeds, leases, bonds, and settlements in the backyard.”
“I don't fancy your plan would be so successful as you flatter yourself,” said a dry, husky voice behind; “there 's rather a stringent law for refractory apprentices, as Mr. Burke may learn.” We turned round, and there stood Mr. Basset, with a grin of most diabolical malignity in his by no means pleasant features. “At the same time,” continued he, “your suggestions are of infinite value, and shall be duly appreciated in the King's Bench.”
“Eh,—King's Bench! Lord bless you, don't speak of it. Mere trifles,—I just threw them out as good hints; I had fifty far better to come. There 's the young lady, now. To be sure, he has started that notion himself, so I must not pretend it was mine. But Miss Nelly, I think, Tom—”
“Mr. Basset is well aware,” interrupted I, “that I am only desirous to be free and untrammelled; that whatever little means I may derive from my family, I 'm willing to surrender all, short of actual beggary, to attain this object,—that I intend quitting Ireland at once. If, then, he consent to enter into an arrangement with me, let it be at once, and on the spot. I have no desire, I have no power, to force him by a threat, in case of refusal; but I hope he will make so much of amends to one of whose present desolation and poverty he is not altogether innocent.”
“There, there; that's devilish well said. The whole thing is all clear before me. So come along, Basset; you and I will settle all this. Have you got a private room where we can have five minutes' chat together? Tom, wait for me here.”
Before either of us could consent or oppose his arrangement, he had taken Basset's arm, and led him downstairs; while I, in a flurry of opposing and conflicting resolves, sat down to think over my fortunes.
Tired at length with waiting, and half suspecting that my volatile friend had forgotten me and all my concerns, I descended to the parlor in hopes to hear something of the pending negotiation. At the head of a long, narrow table sat my fair acquaintance, Miss Nelly, her hair braided very modestly at each aide of her pretty face, which had now assumed an almost Quakerish propriety of expression. She was busily engaged in distributing tea to three pale, red-eyed, emaciated men, whose spongy-looking, threadbare garments bespoke to be attorney's clerks, A small imp, a kind of embryo practitioner, knelt before the fire in the act of toasting bread, but followed with his sharp piercing eyes every stir in the apartment and seemed to watch with malicious pleasure the wry faces around, whenever any undue dilution of the bohea, or any curtailment of the blue milk, pressed heavily on the guests. These were not exactly the circumstances to renew my acquaintance with my fair neighbor, had I been so minded; so having declined her offer of breakfast, I leaned moodily on the chimneypiece, my anxiety to know my fate becoming each instant more painful. Meanwhile not a word was spoken,—a sad, moody silence, unbroken save by the sounds of eating, pervaded all, when suddenly the door of the front parlor was flung open, and Bubbleton's pleasant voice was heard as he talked away unceasingly; in an instant he entered, followed by Basset, over whose hard countenance a shade of better nature seemed to pass.
