Beadle's New York Dime Library, No. 106 — page 8: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

ie aie 8 aos ree my brains to compose a sonnet in your honor, when, to my amazement, at one of the upper windows of the house I distinctly saw a man’s face. It was only for a moment, just as if he had come to the window for the urpoze of looking out and seeing what kind of a night it was. The girl laughed, but it was plain that her merriment was forced and unnatural. “*Oh, Tom, dear, you had been taking a su 7 H Not a drop, Kitty, stronger than whisky, 0 I’m a sinner!” the young man replied, grave- y. “‘ And isn’t whisky cece enough to muddle a man’s head up and make him see double?” the Goose-girl asked, archly. ” Ah, allanna, but I didn’t see two men—only one. “ ne epee Tom, dear, or maybe it was Pat.” This was the name of the hulking, lout- ish servant lad. **Oh, whist now! It’s yng oe pull the wool over my eyes ye are now, itty, darlint!”’ young epper exclaimed. ‘‘ Don’t you think hat I would know Pat at any time, drunk or sober? Sure! that red thatch of his would mark him anywhere, to say nothing of the mouth that is as big as a church-door and the nose as broad as my fist. It was not Pat that I saw; and now, Kitty, Icome to you, fair and honest, and I say to you, who is this man who is apparently concealed in your house? If he is your lover, and you prefer him to me, say so and [ll thank you for your candor, say good- by and never trouble you with my presence more.” The proud lip of the girl ment and there was just a in her eyes. “Well, Mr. Thomas Pepper, you take it quietly enough!” she exclaimed. ‘* And is that all that you care for me after all your protesta- tions? You'll give me up at once and never try to win me from your rival.” “Now then, Miss Sheelan, you wrong me!” he replied, with becoming dignity. ‘‘I give Pa up because your action forces me so to do. you have a man concealed in your house, and that man is my rival, he has already secured an advantage that, as a gentleman, [ can never strive for. Look at the matter yourself, Kitty, and with other eyes than your own. Suppose some one besides myself had seen this man—this stranger in your house—what scandal it would cause unless he is your husband! Bearin mind, Kitty, I am not going to judge you hasti- < am going to give you a chance to ex- plain. ‘*And if I refuse?” she asked, an augry spot of red appearing in each cheek. **But you will not refuse to satisfy me in some way, orelse you are not the girl I take you to be!” he rejoined. **How can I do it? Suppose that there is a secret, and it is not mine to reveal?” ‘*Tell me so, then,” Pepper replied, his face lighting up at once, for he thought he had hit upon the truth. ‘“‘Say that this man is not your lover—maybe he is some good Irishman who has rubbed too roughly against the red- coat rule under which our country groans, and like a true daughter of Erin you are sheltering him from his enemies.” ‘* And if I say to you that he is not my lover, without entering into further explanations, will that satisfy you?’ she asked, a peculiar light stealing into her eyes as she comprehend- ‘a extent of the trust that her lover reposed er. **Certainly; I do not ask you to betray your secret.” ** Well, then, he is not my lover!” the girl declared. ‘“‘I have only one, and he is ee a heart that beats this day in Ire- uivered for a mo- ttle angry sparkle ‘* Which his name is Tom Pepper!” the young man added, laughing. ‘* And now that yow have such faithin me I will impose another task upon you—a_ task which I cannot very well execute myself, and yet whieh I dare not trust to amy one but **T will undertake it and glad of the chance!” the young man exclaimed, instantly. ‘It is a weighty one, for it carries the honor of a woman, but I do not fear to trust it to you, my own brave boy!” she cried, warmly. CHAPTER XI. THE LAWYER AND THE CLERK, TrmoTHy O’GLORY had been one of the most _ successful lawy’rs in Connemara, or in all Con- naught, for tht 6 matter. When quite a young man he had su sceeded his father, who had been a lawyer before him, and the son, being natu- rally very shrewd, and a hard worker, had built up a splendid business. Then, too, as his — waxed apace he had not scrupled to turn is hand to money-lending; he had been one of the pe lm *‘gombeen” men of the district as the usurers are termed who lend money at ruinous rates of interest to the unfortunate tenants who happen to be unlucky enough to fall behind, | Axzd when once a farmer got into the clutch- — _-—— = ——— + ~~~ == — _ ~ — ee —< = ————————— ~ _— — NSS —— ee es of the gombeen men, in nine cases out of ten it meant utter ruin to him and the complete loss of all he possessed. The gombeen man, like the wily spider, thrived upon the bodies of the unfortunate, silly farmer flies who were weak enough to be en- ticed into his meshes. O’Glory was as hard as flint and as merciless as a grindstone, One foolish act only had he committed during his rise to affluence. He had married, and for once in his life the sharp law- yer had met his match. He did not commit this act of folly until he was well along in years, and then he was urged to it by the mag of getting a big slice of prop- erty along with his bride, who was a spinster of uncertain years—an O’Neal, one of the great O’Neals of Galway, he supposed, and reputed to be worth fifty thousand pounds in her own right. Matare O’Glory made up his mind to slip his head into the matrimonial noose he took par- ticular care to look into the particulars of Miss O’Neal’s property, and, as far as he could dis- cover, everything was all right and satisfac- to Thinking, then, that he was getting a prize in Hymen’s market, he espoused the ancient dam- sel; but, judge of the wily lawyer’s disgust, af- ter the honeymoon was over, when he came to look after his wife’s property and made the dis- covery that she was literally as poor as a church mouse, The O’Neal faction had laid a trap for O’Glory and had caught him in the cleverest manner, despite all his cunning. 6 lawyer raved and swore; talked wildly of a divorce and vowed that be would make his better-half repent the trick which she had play- ed, to the latest veg of her life. But, O’Glory had caughta Tartar. His wife could use her tongue far better than he, and be- ing a tall, raw-boned female, almost big enough to make two of the shriveled-up lawyer, was fully able to take her own part; and then, too, she menaced the lawyer with the rage of her brother, the renowned, red-headed fightin O’Neal of Galway; so, awed by the prospect o a quarrel with this doughty fire-eater, the law- rer at last accepted the situation and resolved make the best of it, for, as the old sayin says, ‘‘ what can’t be cured, must be endured. o the tender mercies of O’Glory and his vi- rago of a wife, the young and pretty heiress had been intrusted when her father, old Patrick Moore of Killkerran shuffled off this mortal coil and went to repose with hisancestors in the churchyard. The lawyer had retired from the active prac- tice of his eae Sogengde some time before, having iven up his office in the town, but in reality he ept about as busy as usual, following his trade as a gombeen man with a great deal of perse- verance. A angle clerk only the lawyer retained, one Mickey Feakle—a thin, sallow-faced man, with a parchment-like skin, and apparently as insen- sible. to all ordinary feeling, as an Egyptian mummy resuscitated after a sleep of two thou- sand years. Feakle had been as much a fixture of the town office as the big old desk at which he wrote. He had commenced with O’Glory, the father, as a lad and had grown up with O'Glory the son, and if there was any one in this wor d in whom the lawyer did put some little trust it was the old clerk, It was on the day following the one on which the remarkable events narrated in the opening chapters of our story had transpired, that we first introduce the reader to the O’Glory man- sion. Dinner had been dispatched and the ig 7A had dispersed. Besides the lawyer and his wife, the heiress and the confidential man of business, the household of the O’Glory mansion at present comprised the two officers—Captain Burke and Lieutenant Smithers. When the troops had been ordered into the district on account of the rent troubles, Mrs. O’Glory had jumped at the chance to ente the two officers. As Desmond Burke had remark- ed, the wife of the lawyer dearly loved a red- coat. Despite her historic maiden name, Mrs. O’Glory was a firm adherent of England, and had no words bitter enough for the bold souls who dreamed and hoped that some day the n isle would be free from the rule of the hated Saxon, and, in the words of the martyred Em- met, ‘‘ take her place once again among the na- tions of the earth.” The old lawyer had just returned from town that morning, and the clerk, who was a keen observer, and well acquainted with all his mas- ter’s peculiarities, at once perceived from O’Glory’s manner that he had some weighty matter on his mind. And so, nothing doubting that the lawyer would want to ask his counsel in the matter, after dinner was over Mickey watched his chance and sidled out into the garden, after himself to his OSes when the latter excused s. e Close to the left wing of the mansion grew a large oak-tree and under it a rustic garden seat was placed, O’Glory’s favorite spot for a pipe ie a eee @ 4 “Ss of fragrant tobacco, ‘‘ that Injun weed,” and a quiet meditation after dinner. The lawyer was completely wrapped in medi- tation—a deep brown study in fact—when Feakle approached. The clerk coughed discreetly, and O’Glory thus warned of his being at Bog looked up with a face that was perplexity itself. ‘*Hallo, Mickey, is it there ye are?” he ex- claimed. ‘‘Faix! ye are the very man I want to see for it’s bothered I am, entirely.” **‘And what has gone wrong, sur?’ Feakle asked, seating himself by the side of the law- er. ms Ye know the Goose-gurl!” said the old law- yer, plunging at once into the subject. ‘* Faith an’ I do!” Mickey answered, decid- edly ‘as impident a hussy as iver walked on wo legs.’ Despite his age and extremely ugly appear- ance, . Feakle prided himself upon being quite a ladies’ man, and had made certain ad- vances to pretty Kitty Sheelan which had been repulsed in the most contemptuous manner. ‘Oh, she has a tongue in her head, bad luck to the mney baggage! Well, Mickey, ye know that her father, ould Sheelan, whin he was neniee was always thought to be rowling in gould. **Of course; an’ whin he died as poor as @ or purse it was a nine days’ wonder.” **Mickey, ould Sheelan was not poor!” said the lawyer, impressively; ‘‘he was rich—as rich asa Jew! There’sa big row of houses in Dublin that belongs to him, d’ye mind, and farms in Mayo, and an estate in Clare, and bank-stock and the divil knows what else!” The clerk stared in open-mouthed wonder. ‘€Oh, it’s the truth I’m sp’akin’, Mickey—the truth as sure as I sit here this minute a living man!’ ‘But I don’t understand—” “And it is no wonder that you do not; it bangs Bannagher!” O’Glory exclaimed. ‘‘ Ould Sheelan was a mighty quare customer. When he was in Dublin he played the foine gentle- man, and his agents there never suspected that he lived up here in this out-of-the-way corner of the world. Whin he wasnot in Dublin they thought that he was abroad on the continent, or in London, maybe, wid the Queen, a-throw- ing away his ould by the handful and of course how could they know that he was living . up here on a sixpence a day?” ‘‘Faix! it was like ould Sheelan,” Mickey re- marked, ‘‘He never did anything like any- body else.” ‘Of course whin he died, the men in Dublin never heard sorra a word of it, but after a year had gone by, and they got no sign from him, the gan to think that something was wrong and they put an advertisement in the news- papers. Isaw it whin I was in Dublin, and at once I jumped to the conclusion that the Michael Sheelan that the Dublin lawyers wanted was our ould Mike Sheelan, of Ballinahinch. made cautious inquiries, and to sum it all up in a few words, I discovered that this wild divil of a Goose-gurl, Kitty Sheelan, is the heir to an estate that is worth about fifty thousand pounds! What are ye afther thinking of that, Mister Mickey Feakle?” ** Bedad! it’s hard to belave!” “It’s the truth, man, never-the-less, and, mind ye, this is a profound saycret. Divil a wan in all the wide worruld knows it but meself and you. Now thin, me idea is this, Kitty must place herself in me ds; I must attind to that fifty thousand pounds; but now the pant is, how can I get hould of the gurl, for the ggage has nolove forme. Yousee, Mickey, I joked wid her a bit wan day and she misunder- stood me, and it is a hard name she has had for me iver since.” ‘Oh, aisy enough; I'll go to her and tell her that you have got wind of a man that owed her father a trifle of money and that you will un- dertake to get it for her, provided that she is willing to pay you for your trouble, and that if e don’t get it, you will not be afther charging er anything.” ‘‘ That is it—that is it, exactly, Mickey!” the old lawyer exclaimed. ‘And bind ber not to say a word about the matter. Tell her if she spakes the fat will all be in the fire!” And so the plot was arranged, but the clerk had an idea in his head that > did not put in words, for the great inheritance of the girl daz- zled him. CHAPTER XI. MRS. O’GLORY. AND while the interview between the old lawyer and his confidential clerk was taking place, as detailed in our last chapter, an almost equally important one was transpiring within the house. Mrs, O’Glory had taken advantage of the ab- sence of the gentlemen to attack the young heiress on behalf of Captain Desmond Burke, of Twelve Pins. The wife of the lawyer was a lady well in years, tall and raw-boned in person, a regular virago in temper, illiterate and uncultivated; and yet affecting all the airs of a fine lady. A beautiful brogue, too, she had, although she waa COmMIchboOoOKsS