e ours,--he had
no wages! It is not to be understood that he served O'Shea out of some
sense of heroic devotion or attachment: no; Joe lived, as they say in
India, on "loot" When times were prosperous,--that is, when billiards
and blind-hookey smiled, and to his master's pockets came home small
Californias of half-crowns and even sovereigns,--Joe prospered also. He
drank boldly and freely from the cup when brimful, but the half-empty
goblet he only sipped at. When seasons of pressure set in, Joe's
existence was maintained by some inscrutable secret of his own; for, be
it known that on O'Shea's arrival at an hotel, his almost first care was
to announce, "You will observe my servant is on board wages; he pays
for himself;" and Joe would corroborate the myth with a bow. Bethink
yourself, good reader, had you been the Member for Inch, it might have
been a question whether to separate from such a follower.

By the fluctuations of O'Shea's fortunes, Joe's whole conduct seemed
moulded. When the world went well with his master, his manner grew
somewhat almost respectful; let the times grow worse, Joe became
indifferent; a shade lower, and he was familiar and insolent; and, by
long habit, O'Shea had come to recognize these changes as part of the
condition of a varying fortune.

Little wonder was it that Joe grew to speak of his master and himself
as one, complaining, as he would, "We never got sixpence out of our
property. 'T is the ruin of us paying that annuity to our mother;" and
so on.

Now, these considerations, and many others like them, weighed deeply on
O'Shea's mind, as he entered the room of the hotel, angry and irritated,
doubtless, but far from decided as to how he should manifest it Indeed,
the deliberation was cut short, for there stood Joe before him.

"I thought I was never to see your face again," said O'Shea, scowling at
him. "How dare you have the insolence to appear before me?"

"Is n't it well for you that I 'm alive? Ain't you lucky that you 're
not answering for my death this minute?" said the other, boldly. "And
if I did n't drive like blazes, would I be here now? Appear before
you, indeed! I'd like to know who you 'd be appearin' before, if I was
murthered with them bitthers you gave me?"

"Lying scoundrel! you think to turn it all off in this manner. You
commit a theft first, and if the offence had killed you, it's no more
than you deserved. Who told you to steal the contents of that bag, sir?"