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care for, for he had always been my friend, and had been in the
habit of thrashing me all my life.
When I got up from under the table all the ladies were gone; and I
had the satisfaction of seeing the Captain's nose was bleeding, as
mine was--HIS was cut across the bridge, and his beauty spoiled for
ever. Ulick shook himself, sat down quietly, filled a bumper, and
pushed the bottle to me. 'There, you young donkey,' said he, 'sup
that; and let's hear no more of your braying.'
'In Heaven's name, what does all the row mean?' says my uncle. 'Is
the boy in the fever again?'
'It's all your fault,' said Mick sulkily: 'yours and those who
brought him here.'
'Hold your noise, Mick!' says Ulick, turning on him; 'speak civil of
my father and me, and don't let me be called upon to teach you
manners.'
'It IS your fault,' repeated Mick. 'What business has the vagabond
here? If I had my will, I'd have him flogged and turned out.'
'And so he should be,' said Captain Quin.
'You'd best not try it, Quin,' said Ulick, who was always my
champion; and turning to his father, 'The fact is, sir, that the
young monkey has fallen in love with Nora, and finding her and the
Captain mighty sweet in the garden to-day, he was for murdering Jack
Quin.'
'Gad, he's beginning young,' said my uncle, quite good-humouredly.
''Faith, Fagan, that boy's a Brady, every inch of him.'
'And I'll tell you what, Mr. B.,' cried Quin, bristling up: 'I've
been insulted grossly in this 'OUSE. I ain't at all satisfied with
these here ways of going on. I'm an Englishman I am, and a man of
property; and I--I'--'If you're insulted, and not satisfied,
remember there's two of us, Quin,' said Ulick gruffly. On which the
Captain fell to washing his nose in water, and answered never a
word.
'Mr. Quin,' said I, in the most dignified tone I could assume, 'may
also have satisfaction any time he pleases, by calling on Redmond
Barry, Esquire, of Barryville.' At which speech my uncle burst out
a-laughing (as he did at everything); and in this laugh, Captain
Fagan, much to my mortification, joined. I turned rather smartly
upon him, however, and bade him to understand that as for my cousin
Ulick, who had been my best friend through life, I could put up with
rough treatment from him; yet, though I was a boy, even that sort of
treatment I would bear from him no longer; and any other person who
ventured on the like would find me a man, to their cost. 'Mr. Quin,'
I added, 'knows that fact very well; and if HE'S a man, he'll know
where to find me.'
My uncle now observed that it was getting late, and that my mother
would be anxious about me. 'One of you had better go home with him,'
said he, turning to his sons, 'or the lad may be playing more
pranks.' But Ulick said, with a nod to his brother, 'Both of us ride
home with Quin here.'
'I'm not afraid of Freny's people,' said the Captain, with a faint
attempt at a laugh; 'my man is armed, and so am I.'
'You know the use of arms very well, Quin,' said Ulick; 'and no one
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