some choice
company by a personation of the Yankee. "The whole thing was as good as
a play! But," added he, after a pause, "I 'm not sorry it's over, and
that I have done with him!" Very true and heartfelt was this last
reflection of the Member for Inch,--a far more honest recognition than
even the hearty laugh he had just enjoyed,--and then there came an
uneasy afterthought, that asked, "What could he mean by talking of a
long bill, payable at some future opportunity? Surely he can't imagine
that we 're to renew all this if we ever meet again. No, no, Colonel,
your manners and your medicine may be learned amongst the Mandans, but
they won't do here with us!" And so he issued into the street, not quite
reassured, but somewhat more comforted.

So occupied was his mind with the late scene, that he had walked fully
half-way back to his inn ere he bestowed a thought upon Joe. Wise men
were they who suggested that the sentence of a prisoner should not
immediately follow the conclusion of his trial, but ensue after the
interval of some two or three days. In the impulse of a mind fully
charged with a long narrative of guilt there is a force that seeks its
expansion in severity; whereas, in the brief respite of even some hours,
there come doubts and hesitations and regrets and palliations. In a
word, a variety of considerations unadmitted before find entrance now to
the mind, and are suffered to influence it.

Now, though Mr. O' Shea's first and not very unnatural impulse was to
give Joe a sound thrashing and then discharge him, the interval we have
just described moderated considerably the severity of this resolve. In
the first place, although the reader may be astonished at the assertion,
Joe was one very difficult to replace, since, independently of his
aptitude to serve as groom, valet, or cook, he was deeply versed in all
the personal belongings of his master. He had been with him through long
years of difficulty, and aided him in various ways, from corrupting the
virtuous freeholders of Inchabogue to raising an occasional supply on
the rose-amethyst ring. Joe had fought for him and lied for him, with
a zealous devotion not to be forgotten. Not, indeed, that he loved his
master more, but that he liked the world less, and Joe found a
sincere amount of pleasure in seeing how triumphantly their miserable
pretensions swayed and dominated over mankind. And, lastly, he had
another attribute, not to be undervalued in an age lik