‘No, sir, none of them; but his blood’s up about something. Ould Gill is gone down the stair swearing like mad, and Miss Kate is down the road with a face like a turkey-cock.’ ‘I think you’d better say I was out, Tim--that you couldn’t find me in my room.’ ‘I daren’t, sir. He saw that little Skye terrier of yours below, and he said to me, “Mr. Dick is sure to be at home; tell him I want him immediately.”’ ‘But if I had a bad headache, and couldn’t leave my bed, wouldn’t that be excuse enough?’ ‘It would make him come here. And if I was you, sir, I’d go where I could get away myself, and not where he could stay as long as he liked.’ ‘There’s something in that. I’ll go, Tim. Say I’ll be down in a minute.’ Very careful to attire himself in the humblest costume of his wardrobe, and specially mindful that neither studs nor watch-chain should offer offensive matter of comment, he took his way towards the dreary little den, which, filled with old top-boots, driving-whips, garden-implements, and fishing-tackle, was known as ‘the lord’s study,’ but whose sole literary ornament was a shelf of antiquated almanacs. There was a strange grimness about his father’s aspect which struck young Kearney as he crossed the threshold. His face wore the peculiar sardonic expression of one who had not only hit upon an expedient, but achieved a surprise, as he held an open letter in one hand and motioned with the other to a seat. ‘I’ve been waiting till these people were gone, Dick--till we had a quiet house of it--to say a few words to you. I suppose your friend Atlee is not coming back here?’ ‘I suppose not, sir.’ ‘I don’t like him, Dick; and I’m much mistaken if he is a good fellow.’ ‘I don’t think he is actually a bad fellow, sir. He is often terribly hard up and has to do scores of shifty things, but I never found him out in anything dishonourable or false.’ ‘That’s a matter of taste, perhaps. Maybe you and I might differ about what was honourable or what was false. At all events, he was under our roof here, and if those nobs--or swells, I believe you call them--were like to be of use to any of us, we, the people that were entertaining them, were the first to be thought of; but your pleasant friend thought differently, and made such good use of his time that he cut you out altogether, Dick--he left you nowhere.’ ‘Really, sir, it never occurred to me till now to take that view of the situation.’ ‘Well, take that view of it now, and see how you’ll like it! _You_ have your way to work in life as well as Mr. Atlee. From all I can judge, you’re scarcely as well calculated to do it as he is. You have not his smartness, you have not his brains, and you have not his impudence--and, ‘faith, I’m much mistaken but it’s the best of the three!’ ‘I don’t perceive, sir, that we are necessarily pitted against each other at all.’