“Long life to your lordship, and that’s just like yourself!  I knew you’d stick by me.  And shall I call on you to-morrow, my lord? and at what time?”

“Wait! here’s Mr Blake.  I’ll ask him, and you might as well meet me there.  Grey and Forrest’s the name; it’s in Clare Street, I think.”  Here Mr Blake again entered the room.

“What!” said he; “isn’t your business over yet, Ballindine?  I suppose I’m de trop then.  Only mind, dinner’s ordered for half past six, and it’s that now, and you’re not dressed yet!”

“You’re not de trop, and I was just wanting you.  We’re all friends here, Kelly, you know; and you needn’t mind my telling Mr Blake.  Here’s this fellow going to elope with an heiress from Connaught, and he wants a decently honest lawyer first.”

“I should have thought,” said Blake, “that an indecently dishonest clergyman would have suited him better under those circumstances.”

“May-be he’ll want that, too, and I’ve no doubt you can recommend one.  But at present he wants a lawyer; and, as I have none of my own, I think Forrest would serve his turn.”

“I’ve always found Mr Forrest ready to do anything in the way of his profession—­for money.”

“No, but—­he’d draw up a deed, wouldn’t he, Blake?  It’s a sort of a marriage settlement.”

“Oh, he’s quite at home at that work!  He drew up five, for my five sisters, and thereby ruined my father’s property, and my prospects.”

“Well, he’d see me to-morrow, wouldn’t he?” said Lord Ballindine.

“Of course he would.  But mind, we’re to be off early.  We ought to be at the Curragh, by three.”

“I suppose I could see him at ten?” said his lordship.

It was then settled that Blake should write a line to the lawyer, informing him that Lord Ballindine wished to see him, at his office, at ten o’clock the next morning; it was also agreed that Martin should meet him there at that hour; and Kelly took his leave, much relieved on the subject nearest his heart.

“Well, Frank,” said Blake, as soon as the door was closed, “and have you got the money you wanted?”

“Indeed I’ve not, then.”

“And why not?  If your protege is going to elope with an heiress, he ought to have money at command.”

“And so he will, and it’ll be a great temptation to me to know where I can get it so easily.  But he was telling me all about this woman before I thought of my own concerns—­and I didn’t like to be talking to him of what I wanted myself, when he’d been asking a favour of me.  It would be too much like looking for payment.”

“There, you’re wrong; fair barter is the truest and honestest system, all the world over.—­’Ca me, ca thee,’ as the Scotch call it, is the best system to go by.  I never do, or ask, a favour; that is, for whatever I do, I expect a return; and for whatever I get, I intend to make one.”

“I’ll get the money from Guinness.  After all, that’ll be the best, and as you say, the cheapest.”