“I did, when I was young and foolish.”
“'Faith, then, you're young and foolish at that rate yet, for you're a rogue with the girls, Larry,” said the other, giving him a slap on the back.
“Not I! not I!” said Larry, in a manner expressive of his not being displeased with the charge of gallantry; “he! he! he!—how do you know, eh?” (Hiccup.) “Sure, I know myself; but as I wos telling you, if I could only lay howld of—” here his voice became inaudible to Andy, and the rest of the sentence was lost.
Andy's curiosity was great. “Who could the girl be?”
“And you'd carry her off?” said Larry.
“I would,” said the other; “I'm only afraid o' Squire Egan.”
At this announcement of the intention of “carrying her off,” coupled with the fear of “Squire Egan,” Andy's anxiety to hear the name of the person became so intense that he crawled cautiously a little nearer to the speakers.
“I tell you again,” said Larry, “I can settle him aisy (hiccup)—he's undher my thumb (hiccup).”
“Be aisy,” said the other, contemptuously, who thought this was a mere drunken delusion of Larry's.
“I tell you I'm his masther!” said Larry, with a drunken flourish of his arm; and he continued bragging of his power over the Squire in various ejaculations, the exact meaning of which our friend of the blunderbuss could not fathom, but Andy heard enough to show him that the discovery of the post-office affair was what Larry alluded to.