"And so," said he, abruptly changing the topic, "this affair of Forester's shortened your visit?"
"Of course. Having cut the knot, I left O'Reilly and Conolly to the tender mercies of O'Halloran, who, I perceive by to-day's paper, has denounced his late client in round terms. Another reason, my Lord, for looking after O'Reilly at this moment. It is so easy to secure a prize deserted by her crew."
"I wish Dick had waited a day or two," said Lord Castlereagh, not heeding Heffernan's concluding remark, "and then I should have been off. As it is, he would have done better to adjourn the horse-whipping sine die, His lady-mother will scarcely distinguish between the two parties in such a conflict, and probably deem the indignity pretty equally shared by both parties."
"A very English judgment on an Irish quarrel," observed Heffernan.
"And you yourself, Heffernan,--when are we to see you in London?"
"Heaven knows, my Lord. Sometimes I fancy that I ought not to quit my post here, even for a day; then again I begin to fear lest the new officials may see things in a different light, and that I may be thrown aside as the propagator of antiquated notions."
"Mere modesty, Heffernan," said Lord Castlereagh, with a look of the most comic gravity. "You ought to know by this time that no government can go on without you. You are the fly-wheel that regulates motion and perpetuates impulse to the entire machine. I 'd venture almost to declare that you stand in the inventory of articles transmitted from one viceroy to another; and as we read of 'one throne covered with crimson velvet, and one state couch with gilt supporters,' so we might chance to fall upon the item of 'one Con Heffernan, Kildare Place.'"
"In what capacity, my Lord?" said Heffernan, endeavoring to conceal his anger by a smile.
"Your gifts are too numerous for mention. They might better be summed up under the title of 'State Judas.'"
"You forget, my Lord, that he carried the bag. Now I was never purse-bearer even to the Lord Chancellor. But I can pardon the simile, coming, as I see it does, from certain home convictions. Your Lordship was doubtless assimilating yourself to another historical character of the same period, and, would, like him, accept the iniquity, but 'wash your hands' of its consequences."