"There!" said O'Grady; "there's a second letter astray; I'm certain they
put my letters astray on purpose. There's a plot in the post-office
against me; by this and that, I'll have an inquiry. I wish all the
post-offices in the world were blown up; and all the postmasters hanged,
postmaster-general and all--I do--by the 'ternal war, I do--and all the
mail coaches in the world ground to powder, and the roads they go on
into the bargain--devil a use in them but to carry bad news over the
universe--for all the letters with any good in them are lost; and if
there's a money enclosure in one, that's sure to be robbed. Blow the
post-office, I say--blow it, and sink it!"

It was at this moment Mick entered with the broiled bones, and while he
was in the room, placing glasses on the table, and making the necessary
arrangements for making "screeching hot punch," he heard O'Grady and
Furlong talking about the two lost letters.

On his descent to the kitchen, the cook was spreading a bit of supper
there, in which Andy was to join, he having just completed some
applications of brown paper and vinegar to the bruises received in his
fall. Larry Hogan, too, was invited to share in the repast; and it was
not the first time, by many, that Larry quartered on the Squire. Indeed,
many a good larder was opened to Larry Hogan; he held a very deep
interest in the regards of all the female domestics over the country,
not on the strength of his personal charms, for Larry had a hanging lip,
a snub nose, a low forehead, a large ugly head, whose scrubby grizzled
hair grew round the crown somewhat in the form of a priest's tonsure.
Not on the strength of his gallantry, for Larry was always talking
morality and making sage reflections, while he supplied the womankind
with bits of lace, rolls of ribbon, and now and then silk stockings. He
always had some plausible story of how they happened to come in his way,
for Larry was not a regular pedlar; carrying no box, he drew his chance
treasures from the recesses of very deep pockets contrived in various
parts of his attire. No one asked Larry how he came by such a continued
supply of natty articles, and if they had, Larry would not have told
them; for he was a very "close" man, as well as a "civil-spoken," under
which character he was first introduced to the reader on the memorable
night of Andy's destructive adventure in his mother's cabin. Larry Hogan
was about as shrewd a fellow as any in the whole