“Why, what the devil did I say?” said Lynch, half abashed.

“I’ll not repeat it—­and you hadn’t betther, either.  And now, do you choose to hear my professional advice, and behave to me as you ought and shall do? or will you go out of this and look out for another attorney?  To tell you the truth, I’d jist as lieve you’d take your business to some one else.”

Barry’s brow grew very black, and he looked at Daly as though he would much like to insult him again if he dared.  But he did not dare.  He had no one else to look to for advice or support; he had utterly estranged from him his father’s lawyer; and though he suspected that Daly was not true to him, he felt that he could not break with him.  He was obliged, therefore, to swallow his wrath, though it choked him, and to mutter something in the shape of an apology.

It was a mutter:  Daly heard something about its being only a joke, and not expecting to be taken up so d——­ sharp; and, accepting these sounds as an amende honorable [32], again renewed his functions as attorney.

     [FOOTNOTE 32:  amende honorable—­(French) apology]

“Will you authorise me to see Martin Kelly, and to treat with him?  You’ll find it the cheapest thing you can do; and, more than that, it’ll be what nobody can blame you for.”

“How treat with him?—­I owe him nothing—­I don’t see what I’ve got to treat with him about.  Am I to offer him half the property on condition he’ll consent to marry my sister?  Is that what you mean?”

“No:  that’s not what I mean; but it’ll come to much the same thing in the end.  In the first place, you must withdraw all opposition to Miss Lynch’s marriage; indeed, you must give it your direct sanction; and, in the next place, you must make an amicable arrangement with Martin about the division of the property.”

“What—­coolly give him all he has the impudence to ask?—­throw up the game altogether, and pitch the whole stakes into his lap?—­Why, Daly, you—­”

“Well, Mr Lynch, finish your speech,” said Daly, looking him full in the face.

Barry had been on the point of again accusing the attorney of playing false to him, but he paused in time; he caught Daly’s eye, and did not dare to finish the sentence which he had begun.

“I can’t understand you, I mean,” said he; “I can’t understand what you’re after:  but go on; may-be you’re right, but I can’t see, for the life of me.  What am I to get by such a plan as that?”

Barry was now cowed and frightened; he had no dram-bottle by him to reassure him, and he became, comparatively speaking, calm and subdued.  Indeed, before the interview was over he fell into a pitiably lachrymose tone, and claimed sympathy for the many hardships he had to undergo through the ill-treatment of his family.