“And asked you to sit down?”
“He did—most civilly.”
“Was there any drink going?”
“Nothing but coffee.”
“Well, I wonder at it!” said Peter, with a shake of the head.
“Not at all. Probably his lordship had been a little too liberal the night before,” observed the major.
“Any company wid his lordship?”
“None, Peter,” responded the major. “An aid-de-camp told Mr. O’Halloran, that the card-parties had been postponed until your new breeches arrived from England.”
“I heard another story,” observed Captain Fenwick. “They say—God knows whether it be true or false—that Sir Thomas Picton got a bad dollar in change the night Crotty got drunk at head-quarters—and Peter being the only suspicious person in the room, they have, of course, left it at his door.”
Mr. Crotty appeared a little fidgetty; but still continued to show fight.