‘Well, I hope so, too,’ said Curtis, in good faith for the compliment.’ Didn’t I take up nine men for the search of arms here, though there were only five? One of them turned evidence,’ added he gravely;’ he was the fellow that swore Miss Kearney stood between you and the fire after they wounded you.’ ‘You are determined to make Mr. Walpole your friend,’ whispered Nina in his ear; ‘don’t you see, sir, that you are ruining yourself?’ ‘I have often been puzzled to explain how it was that crime went unpunished in Ireland,’ said Walpole sententiously. ‘And you know now?’ asked Curtis. ‘Yes; in a great measure, you have supplied me with the information.’ ‘I believe it’s all right now,’ muttered the captain to Kate. ‘If the swell owns that I have put him up to a thing or two, he’ll not throw me over.’ ‘Would you give me three minutes of your time?’ whispered Gorman O’Shea to Lord Kilgobbin, as they arose from table. ‘Half an hour, my boy, or more if you want it. Come along with me now into my study, and we’ll be safe there from all interruption.’ CHAPTER XLVI SAGE ADVICE ‘So then you’re in a hobble with your aunt,’ said Mr. Kearney, as he believed he had summed up the meaning of a very blundering explanation by Gorman O’Shea; ‘isn’t that it?’ ‘Yes, sir; I suppose it comes to that.’ ‘The old story, I’ve no doubt, if we only knew it--as old as the Patriarchs: the young ones go into debt, and think it very hard that the elders dislike the paying it.’ ‘No, no; I have no debts--at least, none to speak of.’ ‘It’s a woman, then? Have you gone and married some good-looking girl, with no fortune and less family? Who is she?’ ‘Not even that, sir,’ said he, half impatient at seeing how little attention had been bestowed on his narrative. ‘’Tis bad enough, no doubt,’ continued the old man, still in pursuit of his own reflections; ‘not but there’s scores of things worse; for if a man is a good fellow at heart, he’ll treat the woman all the better for what she has cost him. That is one of the good sides of selfishness; and when you have lived as long as me, Gorman, you’ll find out how often there’s something good to be squeezed out of a bad quality, just as though it were a bit of our nature that was depraved, but not gone to the devil entirely.’ ‘There is no woman in the case here, sir,’ said O’Shea bluntly, for these speculations only irritated him. ‘Ho, ho! I have it, then,’ cried the old man. ‘You’ve been burning your fingers with rebellion. It’s the Fenians have got a hold of you.’ ‘Nothing of the kind, sir. If you’ll just read these two letters. The one is mine, written on the morning I came here: here is my aunt’s. The first is not word for word as I sent it, but as well as I can remember. At all events, it will show how little I had provoked the answer. There, that’s the document that came along with my trunks, and I have never heard from her since.’