“I know it sounds absurd, but I pledge you my sacred word of honor I have felt it.”
“And M'Gruder?” asked Tony.
“M'Gruder, sir, I liberated! I said, Free him! and, like the fellow in Curran's celebrated passage, his chains fell to the ground, and he stood forward, not a bit grateful,—far from it,—but a devilish crusty Scotchman, telling me what a complaint he 'd lodge against me as soon as he arrived in England.”
“No, no; he 's not the fellow to do that.”
“If he did, sir, it would crush him! The Emperor of Russia could not prefer a complaint against Skeff Darner, and feel the better of it!”
“He 's a true-hearted, fine fellow,” said Tony.
“With all my heart I concede to him all the rough virtues you may desire to endow him with; but please to bear in mind, Master Tony, that a man of your station and your fortune cannot afford such intimacies as your friend Rory here and this M'Gruder creature.”
“Then I was a richer man when I had nothing, for I could afford it then,” said Tony, sturdily; “and I tell you more, Skeffy,—I mean to afford it still. There is no fellow living I love better—no, nor as well—as I love yourself; but even for your love I'll not give up the fine-hearted fellows who were true to me in my days of hardship, shared with me what they had, and gave me—what was better to me—their loving-kindness and sympathy.”
“You'd bring down the house if you said that in the Adelphi, Tony.”
“It 's well for you that I can't get out of bed,” said Tony, with a grim laugh.