‘It is unlucky,’ said Mr. Kendal, ’and a difficulty the lad could hardly appreciate, since it is a good old name, and the O is a special mark of nobility.’

’And what has a banker to do with nobility?  Pretty sort of nobility too, at that dog-kennel of theirs in Ireland, and his father, a mere adventurer if ever there lived one!  But I swore when he carried off poor Ellen that his speculation should do him no good, and I’ve kept my word.  I wish I hadn’t been fool enough to meddle with one of the concern!  No, no, ’tis no use arguing, Mr. Kendal, I have done with him!  I would not make him a partner, not if he offered to change his name to John Smith!  I never thought to meet with such ingratitude, but it runs in the breed!  I might have known better than to make much of one of the crew.  Yet it is a pity too, we have not had such a clear-headed, trustworthy fellow about the place since young Bowles died; he has a good deal of the Goldsmith in him when you set him to work, and makes his figures just like my poor father.  I thought it was his writing the other day till I looked at the date.  Clever lad, very, but it runs in the blood.  I shall send for Andrew Goldsmith.’

One secret of Mr. Kendal’s power was that he never interrupted, but let people run themselves down and contradict themselves; and all he observed was, ’However it may end, you have done a great deal for him.  Even if you parted now, he would be able to find a situation.’

‘Why—­yes,’ said Mr. Goldsmith, ’the lad knew nothing serviceable when he came, we had an infinity of maggots about algebra and logarithms to drive out of his head; but now he really is nearly as good an accountant as old Johns.’

’You would be sorry to part with him, and I cannot help hoping this may be made up.’

‘You don’t bring me any message!  I’ve said I’ll listen to nothing.’

‘No; the poor boy’s feelings are far too much wounded,’ said Mr. Kendal.  ’Whether rightly or wrongly, he fancies that his father and family have been slightingly spoken of, and he is exceedingly hurt.’

’His father!  I’m sure I did not say a tenth part of what the fellow richly deserves.  If the young gentleman is so touchy, he had better go back to Ireland again.’

Nothing more favourable could Mr. Kendal obtain, though he thought Mr. Goldsmith uneasy, and perhaps impressed by the independence of his nephew’s attitude.

It was an arduous office for a peace-maker, where neither party could comprehend the feelings of the other, but on his return he found that Ulick had stormed himself into comparative tranquillity, and was listening the better to the womankind, because they had paid due honour to the amiable ancestral Tigearnach and all his guttural posterity, whose savage exploits and bloody catastrophes acted as such a sedative, that by the time he had come down to Uncle Bryan of the Kaffir war, he actually owned that as to the mighty ‘O,’ Mr. Goldsmith might have erred in sheer ignorance.