The squire read his letter two or three times, and made his comments as he proceeded. "'Working heaven and earth to send us to--' So, that's the work O'Grady's at--that's old friendship--d--d unfair: and after all the money I lent him too;--he'd better take care--I'll be down on him if he plays foul;--not that I'd like that much either;--but--Let's see who's this is coming down to oppose me?--Sack Scatterbrain--the biggest fool from this to himself;--the fellow can't ride a bit,--a pretty member for a sporting county! 'I lodge at a milliner's'--divil doubt you, Murtough; I'll engage you do.--Bad luck to him!--he'd rather be fooling away his time in a back-parlour, behind a bonnet-shop, than minding the interests of the county. 'Pension'--ha!--wants it sure enough,--take care, O'Grady, or by the powers I'll be at you.--You may baulk all the bailiffs, and defy any other man to serve you with a writ; but, by jingo! if I take the matter in hand, I'll be bound I'll get it done. 'Stephen's Green--big ditch--where I used to hunt water-rats.'--Divil sweep you, Murphy! you'd rather be hunting water-rats any day than minding your business.--He's a clever fellow for all that. 'Favourite bitch--Mrs. Egan.' Ay!--there's the end of it--with his bit o' po'thry too! The divil! The squire threw down the letter, and then his eye caught the other two that Andy had purloined. "More of that stupid blackguard's work!--robbing the mail--no less!--that fellow will be hanged some time or other. 'Egad, maybe they'll hang him for this! What's best to be done?--Maybe it will be the safest way to see who they are for, and send them to the parties, and request they will say nothing: that's it." The squire here took up the letters that lay before him, to read their superscriptions; and the first he turned over was directed to Gustavus Granby O'Grady, Esq. Neck-or-nothing Hall, Knockbotherum. This was what is called a curious coincidence. Just as he had been reading all about O'Grady's intended treachery to him, here was a letter to that individual, and with the Dublin post-mark too, and a very grand seal. The squire examined the arms, and, though not versed in the mysteries of heraldry, he thought he remembered enough of most of the arms he had seen to say that this armorial bearing was a strange one to him. He turned the letter over and over again, and looked at it back and front, with an expression in his face that said, as plain as countenance could speak, "I'd give a trifle to know what is inside of this." He looked at the seal again: "Here's a--goose, I think it is, sitting in a bowl, with cross-bars on it, and a spoon in its mouth: like the fellow that owns it, maybe. A goose with a silver spoon in his mouth! Well, here's the gable-end of a house, and a bird sitting on the top of it. Could it be Sparrow? There's a fellow called Sparrow that's under-secretary at the Castle. D--n it! I wish I knew what it's about."