Volume Ii Part 25 (2/2)
”' Not if they can help it, Tom, certainly. I have never been out since I shot Tom Connelly in the knee, which was a matter of forty years ago, and I had good hopes it was to be my last exploit of this kind. But what is to be done if a man tells you that your age is your protection; that if it had not been for your white hairs and your shaking ankles, that he 'd have resented your conduct or your words to him? Faith, I think it puts a fellow on his mettle to show that his heart is all right, though his hand may tremble.”
”I 'll not take any share in such a folly. I tell you, Barrington, the world for whom you are doing this will be the very first to scout its absurdity. Just remember for a moment we are not living in the old days before the Union, and we have not the right, if we had the power, to throw our age back into the barbarism it has escaped from.”
”Barbarism! The days of poor Yelverton, and Ponsonby, and Harry Grattan, and Parsons, and Ned Lysaght, barbarism! Ah! my dear Tom, I wish we had a few of such barbarians here now, and I 'd ask for another bottle or two of that port.”
”I'll not give it a milder word; and what's more, I'll not suffer you to tarnish a time-honored name by a folly which even a boy would be blamed for. My dear old friend, just grant me a little patience.”
”This is cool, certainly,” said Barrington, laughing. ”You have said all manner of outrageous things to me for half an hour unopposed, and now you cry have patience.”
”Give me your honor now that this shall not go further.”
”I cannot, Tom,--I a.s.sure you, I cannot.”
”What do you mean by 'you cannot'?” cried Withering, angrily.
”I mean just what I said. If you had accepted a man's brief, Tom Withering, there is a professional etiquette which would prevent your giving it up and abandoning him; and so there are situations between men of the world which claim exactly as rigid an observance. I told Stapylton I would be at his orders, and I mean to keep my word.”
”Not if you had no right to pledge it; not if I can prove to you that this quarrel was a mere got-up altercation to turn you from an inquiry which this man dare not face.”
”This is too subtle for me, Withering,--far too subtle.”
”No such thing, Barrington; but I will make it plainer. How if the man you are going to meet had no right to the name he bears?”
”What do I care for his name?”
”Don't you care for the falsehood by which he has a.s.sumed one that is not his own?”
”I may be sorry that he is not more clean-handed; but I tell you again, Tom, they never indulged such punctilios in our young days, and I 'm too old to go to school again!”
”I declare, Barrington, you provoke me,” said the lawyer, rising, and pacing the room with hasty strides. ”After years and years of weary toil, almost disheartened by defeat and failure, we at last see the outline of land; a few more days--or it may be hours--of perseverance may accomplish our task. Since I arose this morning I have learned more of our case, seen my way more clearly through matters which have long puzzled me, than the cost of years has taught me. I have pa.s.sed four hours with one who would give his life to serve you, but whose name I was not at liberty to divulge, save in the last necessity, and the reasons for which reserve I heartily concur in; and now, by a rash and foolish altercation, you would jeopardy everything. Do you wonder if I lose temper?”
”You have got me into such a state of bewilderment, Tom, that I don't know what I am asked to agree to. But who is your friend,--is n't it a woman?”
”It is not a woman.”
”I'd have bet five pounds it was! When as sharp a fellow as you takes the wrong line of country, it's generally a woman is leading the way over the fences.”
”This time your clever theory is at fault.”
”Well, who is it? Out with him, Tom. I have not so many stanch friends in the world that I can afford to ignore them.”
”I will tell you his name on one condition.”
”I agree. What is the condition?”
”It is this: that when you hear it you will dismiss from your mind--though it be only for a brief s.p.a.ce--all the prejudices that years may have heaped against him, and suffer me to show you that _you_, with all your belief in your own fairness, are not just; and with a firm conviction in your own generosity, might be more generous. There 's my condition!”
”Well, it must be owned I am going to pay pretty smartly for my information,” said Barrington, laughing. ”And if you are about to preach to me, it will not be a 'charity' sermon; but, as I said before, I agree to everything.”
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