business, a principal feature in which was the examination of
Handy Andy, touching the occurrences of the evening he drove Furlong to
Merryvale; for though Andy was clear of the charge for which he had been
taken into custody, namely, the murder of Furlong, O'Grady thought he
might have been a party to some conspiracy to drive the stranger to the
enemy's camp, and therefore put him to the question very sharply. This
examination he had set his heart upon; and reserving it as a _bonne
bouche_, dismissed all preliminary cases in a very off-hand manner, just
as men carelessly swallow a few oysters preparatory to dinner.

As for Andy, when he was summoned to the justice-room, he made sure it
was for the purpose of being charged with robbing the post-office, and
cast a sidelong glance at the effigy of the man hanging on the wall, as
he was marched up to the desk where O'Grady sat in magisterial dignity;
and, therefore, when he found it was only for driving a gentleman to a
wrong house all the pother was made, his heart was lightened of a heavy
load, and he answered briskly enough. The string of question and reply
was certainly an entangled one, and left O'Grady as much puzzled as
before whether Andy was stupid and innocent, or too knowing to let
himself be caught--and to this opinion he clung at last. In the course
of the inquiry, he found Andy had been in service at Merryvale; and
Andy, telling him he knew all about waiting at table, and so forth, and
O'Grady being in want of an additional man-servant in the house while
his honourable guest, Sackville Scatterbrain, should be on a visit with
him, Andy was told he should be taken on trial for a month. Indeed, a
month was as long as most servants could stay in the house--they came
and went as fast as figures in a magic lantern.

Andy was installed in his new place, and set to work immediately
scrubbing up extras of all sorts to make the reception of the honourable
candidate for the county as brilliant as possible, not only for the
honour of the house, but to make a favourable impression on the coming
guest; for Augusta, the eldest girl, was marriageable, and to her
father's ears "The Honourable Mrs. Sackville Scatterbrain" would have
sounded much more agreeably than "Miss O'Grady."

"Well--who knows?" said O'Grady to his wife; "such things have come to
pass. Furbish her up, and make her look smart at dinner--he has a good
fortune, and will be a peer one of these days--worth c