to make it an exception. This is a matter
you ought to know for _your_ sake, and to keep secret for _mine_."

"Then you have my promise," said Corrigan, frankly.

"I 'll be brief with my explanation," said Linton. "When there was
a design, some time back, of my accepting the representation of the
borough, Cashel offered me his property of Tubber-beg, on terms which
very nearly approached a gift. This--though at the time our relations
were those of the closest friendship--I refused; but, as I had made
some progress in my canvass of the borough, there was a difficulty in
abandoning the position; and so the matter hung, each hoping that the
other would suggest some arrangement that might satisfy both. This
fortunate device, however, was not to be discovered, and as, for some
time back, our intercourse had become gradually less intimate, the
chance of such a solution diminished daily.

"In this way the affair stood, when, a couple of mornings since, I felt
it my duty, as one who really felt an interest in him, to remonstrate
with Roland on a circumstance which, without any affectation of prudery,
would have gravely compromised himself, and, worse still, another
person. It was a case,--I know not exactly how to touch upon a matter
of such delicacy; enough if I say it was one where a persistence in his
conduct must have ended in disgrace to him, ruin and misery to another.
Poor thing! she is, indeed, to be pitied; and if there be extenuation
for such cases, hers is one to claim it. I knew her as Laura
Gardiner,--the handsomest creature I ever beheld. Well, well, it is a
theme I must not linger on. Cashel, so far from receiving my counsel as
I hoped, and indeed expected, resented it with anger and rudeness, and
even questioned the degree of intimacy on which I presumed to give my
unasked advice.

"I am fortunately a man of cool temper, and so I bore this ungenerous
return better than most others might; and seeing that it would possibly
be the last occasion I should ever have of giving even unwilling
counsel, I spoke to him freely and openly. I told him that his mode of
living, while derogatory to the hopes conceived of him, was one that
must end at last in ruin; that no fortune could stand his losses at
play, and the wasteful extravagance of his caprices. I pressed the
matter as strongly as I was able, and represented that his habits bore
no reference whatever to his income.

"'It is quite true,' said he, with a sneering