“Sorry for it, miss, but the law makes no distinction with regard to property on the premises. You can always recover by a replevin.” “Come, Helen, let us leave this,” said Lady Eleanor, faintly; “come away, child.” “You said, sir,” said Helen, turning hastily about,--“you said, sir, that these proceedings were taken at the suit of Dr. Hickman. Was it his desire that we should be treated thus?” “Upon my word, young lady, he gave no special directions on the subject, nor, if he had, would it signify much. The law, once set in motion, must take its course; I suppose you know that.” Helen did not hear his speech out, for, yielding to her mother, she quitted the apartment. Mr. Nickie stood for a few moments gazing at the door by which they had made their exit, and then, turning towards M'Dermot, with a knowing wink he said, “We'll be better friends before we part, I 'll engage, little as she likes me now.” “Faix, I never seen yer equal at getting round them,” answered the sub, in a voice of fawning flattery, the very opposite of his former gruff tone. “That's the way I always begin, when they take a saucy way with them,” resumed Nickie, who felt evidently pleased at the other's admiration. “And when they 're brought down a bit to a sense of their situation, I can just be as kind as I was cruel.” “Never fear ye!” said M'Dermot, with a sententious shake of the head. “Devil a taste of her would lave the room, if it wasn't for the mother.” “I saw that plain enough,” said Nickie, as he threw a self-approving look at himself in a tall mirror opposite. “She's a fine young girl, there's no denying it,” said M'Dermot, who anticipated, as the result of his chief's attention, a more liberal scale of treatment for himself. “But I don't know how ye 'll ever get round her, though to be sure if _you_ can't, who can?” “This inventory will keep me till night,” said Nickie, changing the theme quite suddenly, “and I'll miss Dempsey, I 'm afraid.” “I hope not; sure you have his track,--haven't you?” “Yes, and I have four fellows after him, along the shore here, but they say he 's cunning as a fox. Well, I 'll not give him up in a hurry, that's all. Is that rain I hear against the glass, Mick?” “Ay, and dreadful rain too!” said the other, peeping through the window, which now rattled and shook with a sudden squall of wind. “You 'll not be able to leave this so late.” “So I 'm thinking, Mick,” said Nickie, laying down his writing-materials, and turning his back to the fire; “I believe I must stay where I am.” “'T is yourself is the boy!” cried Mick, with a look of admiration at his master. “You 're wrong, Mick,” said he, with a scarce repressed smile, “all wrong; I wasn't thinking of her.” “Maybe not,” said M'Dermot, shaking his head doubtfully; “maybe she's not thinking of you this minute! But, afther all, I don't know how ye 'll do it. Any one would say the vardic was again you.”