O'Connor seemed,Ithought,slightly embarrassed.He answered:'No,no--I cannot say that he ever attempted anything of the kind.Icertainly have played with him,but never lost to any serious amount;nor can Irecollect that he ever solicited me--indeed he knows that I have a strong objection to deep play.YOU must be aware that my finances could not bear much pruning down.I never lost more to him at a sitting than about five pounds,which you know is nothing.No,you wrong him if you imagine that he attached himself to me merely for the sake of such contemptible winnings as those which a broken-down Irish gentleman could afford him.Come,Purcell,you are too hard upon him--you judge only by report;you must see him,and decide for yourself.--Suppose we call upon him now;he is at the inn,in the High Street,not a mile off.'
I declined the proposal drily.
'Your caution is too easily alarmed,' said he.'I do not wish you to make this man your bosom friend:I merely desire that you should see and speak to him,and if you form any acquaintance with him,it must be of that slight nature which can be dropped or continued at pleasure.'
From the time that O'Connor had announced the fact that his friend was no other than the notorious Fitzgerald,a foreboding of something calamitous had come upon me,and it now occurred to me that if any unpleasantness were to be feared as likely to result to O'Connor from their connection,I might find my attempts to extricate him much facilitated by my being acquainted,however slightly,with Fitzgerald.I know not whether the idea was reasonable--it was certainly natural;and I told O'Connor that upon second thoughts I would ride down with him to the town,and wait upon Mr.Fitzgerald.
We found him at home;and chatted with him for a considerable time.To my surprise his manners were perfectly those of a gentleman,and his conversation,if not peculiarly engaging,was certainly amusing.The politeness of his demeanour,and the easy fluency with which he told his stories and his anecdotes,many of them curious,and all more or less entertaining,accounted to my mind at once for the facility with which he had improved his acquaintance with O'Connor;and when he pressed upon us an invitation to sup with him that night,I had almost joined O'Connor in accepting it.I determined,however,against doing so,for Ihad no wish to be on terms of familiarity with Mr.Fitzgerald;and I knew that one evening spent together as he proposed would go further towards establishing an intimacy between us than fifty morning visits could do.When I arose to depart,it was with feelings almost favourable to Fitzgerald;indeed I was more than half ashamed to acknowledge to my companion how complete a revolution in my opinion respecting his friend half an hour's conversation with him had wrought.His appearance certainly WAS against him;but then,under the influence of his manner,one lost sight of much of its ungainliness,and of nearly all its vulgarity;and,on the whole,I felt convinced that report had done him grievous wrong,inasmuch as anybody,by an observance of the common courtesies of society,might easily avoid coming into personal collision with a gentleman so studiously polite as Fitzgerald.At parting,O'Connor requested me to call upon him the next day,as he intended to make trial of the merits of a pair of greyhounds,which he had thoughts of purchasing;adding,that if he could escape in anything like tolerable time from Fitzgerald's supper-party,he would take the field soon after ten on the next morning.At the appointed hour,or perhaps a little later,I dismounted at Castle Connor;and,on entering the hall,I observed a gentleman issuing from O'Connor's private room.I recognised him,as he approached,as a Mr.
M'Donough,and,being but slightly acquainted with him,was about to pass him with a bow,when he stopped me.
There was something in his manner which struck me as odd;he seemed a good deal flurried if not agitated,and said,in a hurried tone:
'This is a very foolish business,Mr.
Purcell.You have some influence with my friend O'Connor;I hope you can induce him to adopt some more moderate line of conduct than that he has decided upon.If you will allow me,I will return for a moment with you,and talk over the matter again with O'Connor.'
As M'Donough uttered these words,I
felt that sudden sinking of the heart which accompanies the immediate anticipation of something dreaded and dreadful.I was instantly convinced that O'Connor had quarrelled with Fitzgerald,and I knew that if such were the case,nothing short of a miracle could extricate him from the consequences.I signed to M'Donough to lead the way,and we entered the little study together.O'Connor was standing with his back to the fire;on the table lay the breakfast-things in the disorder in which a hurried meal had left them;and on another smaller table,placed near the hearth,lay pen,ink,and paper.As soon as O'Connor saw me,he came forward and shook me cordially by the hand.
'My dear Purcell,'said he,'you are the very man I wanted.I have got into an ugly scrape,and I trust to my friends to get me out of it.'
'You have had no dispute with that man--that Fitzgerald,I hope,'said I,giving utterance to the conjecture whose truth I most dreaded.
'Faith,I cannot say exactly what passed between us,'said he,'inasmuch as I was at the time nearly half seas over;but of this much I am certain,that we exchanged angry words last night.Ilost my temper most confoundedly;but,as well as I can recollect,he appeared perfectly cool and collected.What he said was,therefore,deliberately said,and on that account must be resented.'
'My dear O'Connor,are you mad?'I exclaimed.'Why will you seek to drive to a deadly issue a few hasty words,uttered under the influence of wine,and forgotten almost as soon as uttered?Aquarrel with Fitzgerald it is twenty chances to one would terminate fatally to you.'
