ow, sir," said he, "to know what popular opinion
will pronounce upon this man. Denny speaks with the voice of a large
mass of this city; and if they be not either very intelligent or
exalted, they are at least fellows who back words by deeds, and are
quite ready to risk their heads for their convictions,--a test of
honesty that their betters, perhaps, would shrink from. From what he
says, there will be little sympathy for Rutledge. The law, of course,
will follow its due path; but the law against popular feeling is like
the effort of the wind to resist the current of a fast river: it may
ruffle the surface, but never will arrest the stream. Now, sir, just
tell me, in a few words, what took place between you?"

My father detailed everything, from the hour of his arrival in Dublin,
down to the very moment of his descending at Fagan's door. He faltered,
indeed, and hesitated about the conversation of the coffee-room, for
even in all the confidence of a confession, he shrunk from revealing the
story of his marriage. And in doing so, he stammered and blundered
so much that Fagan could collect little above the bare facts, that my
mother had been wagered at a card-table, and won by my father.

Had my father been in a cooler mood, he could not have failed to remark
how much deeper was the interest Fagan took in the story of his first
meeting with my mother than in all the circumstances of the duel. So
far as it was safe,--further than it would have been so at any other
moment,--the Grinder cross-questioned my father as to her birth, the
manner of her education, and the position she held before her marriage.

"This is all beside the matter," cried my father, at last, impatiently.
"I am now to think what is best to be done here. Shall I give myself
up at once?--And why not, Fagan?" added he, abruptly, interrogating the
look of the other.

"For two sufficient reasons, sir: first, that you would be needlessly
exposing yourself to great peril; and, secondly, you would certainly be
exposing another to great--" He stopped and faltered, for there was that
in my father's face that made the utterance of a wrong word dangerous.

"Take care what you say, Master Tony; for, however selfish you may deem
me, I have still enough of heart left to consider those far worthier of
thought than myself."

"And yet, sir, the fact is so, whether I speak it or not," said Fagan.
"Once let this affair come before a public tribunal, and what is there