“That's exactly where I want to go. Darby; will you take me with you?” for at the instant Captain Bubbleton's address flashed on my mind, and I resolved to seek him out and ask his advice in my difficulties.
“I see it all,” replied Darby, as he placed the tip of his finger on his nose. “I conceive your embarrassments,—you're afraid of Basset; and small blame to you. But don't do it. Master Tommy,—don't do it, alannah! that 's the hardest life at all.”
“What?” said I, in amazement.
“To 'list! Sure I know what you're after. Faix, it would sarve you better to larn the pipes.”
I hastened to assure Darby of his error; and in a few words informed him of what I had overheard of Basset's intentions respecting me.
“Make you an attorney!” said Darby, interrupting me abruptly; “an attorney! There's nothing so mean as an attorney. The police is gentlemen compared to them,—they fight it out fair like men; but the other chaps sit in a house planning and contriving mischief all day long, inventing every kind of wickedness, and then getting people to do it. See, now, I believe in my conscience the devil was the first attorney, and it was just to serve his own ends that he bred a ruction between Adam and Eve. But whisht! there's somebody stirring. Are you for the road?”
“Yes, Darby; my mind's made up.”
Indeed, his own elegant eulogium on legal pursuits assisted my resolution, and filled my heart with renewed disgust at the thought of such a guardian as Tony Basset.
We walked stealthily along the gloomy passages, traversed the old hall, and noiselessly withdrew the heavy bolts and the great chain that fastened the door. The rain was sweeping along the ground in torrents, and the wind dashed it against the window panes in fitful gusts. It needed all our strength to close the door after us against the storm, and it was only after several trials that we succeeded in doing so. The hollow sound of the oak door smote upon my heart as it closed behind me; in an instant the sense of banishment, of utter destitution, was present to my mind. I turned my eyes to gaze upon the old house,—to take my last farewell of it forever! Gloomy as my prospect was, my sorrow was less for the sad future than for the misery of the moment.
“No, Master Tom! no, you must go back,” said Darby, who watched with a tender interest the sickly paleness of my cheek, and the tottering uncertainty of my walk.