“Of course he has; they are always bolstering each other up. It is, 'Barrington, my boy, you 'll turn the corner yet. You 'll drive up that old avenue to the house you were born in, Barrington, of Barrington Hall;' or, 'Withering, I never heard you greater than on that point before the twelve Judges;' or, 'Your last speech at Bar was finer than Curran.' They'd pass the evening that way, and call me a cantankerous old hound when my back was turned, just because I did n't hark in to the cry. Maybe I have the laugh at them, after all.” And he broke out into one of his most discordant cackles to corroborate his boast. “The sound sense and experience of an old Walcheren man might have its weight with them. I know it would with me.” “Ay,” muttered the Major, half aloud, for he was thinking to himself whether this piece of flattery was a bait for a little whiskey-and-water. “I 'd rather have the unbought judgment of a shrewd man of the world than a score of opinions based upon the quips and cranks of an attorney's instructions.” “Ay!” responded the other, as he mumbled to himself, “he's mighty thirsty.” “And what's more,” said Stapylton, starting to his legs, “I 'd follow the one as implicitly as I'd reject the other. I 'd say, 'M'Cormick is an old friend; we have known each other since boyhood.'” “No, we haven't I never saw Peter Barrington till I came to live here.” “Well, after a close friendship of years with his son--” “Nor that, either,” broke in the implacable Major. “He was always cutting his jokes on me, and I never could abide him, so that the close friendship you speak of is a mistake.” “At all events,” said Stapylton, sharply, “it could be no interest of yours to see an old--an old acquaintance lavishing his money on lawyers and in the pursuit of the most improbable of all results. _You_ have no design upon him. _You_ don't want to marry his sister!” “No, by Gemini! “--a favorite expletive of the Major's in urgent moments. “Nor the Meer's daughter, either, I suppose?” “The black! I think not. Not if she won the lawsuit, and was as rich as--she never will be.” “I agree with you there, Major, though I know nothing of the case or its merits; but it is enough to hear that a beggared squire is on one side, and Leadenhall Street on the other, to predict the upshot, and, for my own part, I wonder they go on with it.” “I'll tell you how it is,” said M'Cormick, closing one eye so as to impart a look of intense cunning to his face. “It's the same with law as at a fox-hunt: when you 're tired out beating a cover, and ready to go off home, one dog--very often the worst in the whole pack--will yelp out. You know well enough he's a bad hound, and never found in his life. What does that signify? When you 're wishing a thing, whatever flatters your hopes is all right,--is n't that true?--and away you dash after the yelper as if he was a good hound.” “You have put the matter most convincingly before me.”