the captain is gone.
this is a pretty way to recommend yourself to the family.
you are a gallant lad, and i like your spirit. but what dugan says is true. it's a hard thing to give a lad counsel who is in such a far- gone state as you; but, believe me, i know the world, and if you will but follow my advice, you won't regret having taken it. dorothy dugan has not a penny; you are not a whit richer. and, my poor boy, don't you see -- though it's a hard matter to see -- that she's a flirt, and does not care a pin for you or best either?
faith, i think you are a lad that's likely to keep your word.
i'll go home with the boy.
a pretty day's work of it you have made, master roderick. knowing your uncle to be distressed for money, and try and break off a match which will bring fifteen hundred a-year into the family? best has promised to pay off the four thousand pounds which is bothering your uncle so. he takes a girl without a penny -- a girl that has been flinging herself at the head of every man in these parts these ten years past, and missing them all, and a boy who ought to be attached to your uncle as to your father.
and this is the return you make for his kindness! didn't he harbor you in his house when your father died, and hasn't he given you and your mother, rent-free, your fine house of jamesville yonder?
well, if it must be, it must. for a young fellow, you are the most bloodthirsty i ever saw. no officer, bearing his majesty's commission, can receive a glass of wine on his nose, without resenting it -- fight you must, and best is a huge, strong fellow.
in faith, i believe you are not; for a lad i never saw more game in my life. give me a kiss, my dear boy. you're after my own soul. as long as jack grogan lives, you shall never want a friend or a second.
the meeting is arranged. captain best is waiting for you now.
your cousins go out with him.
that's a very handsome sword you have there.
and now you risk the same fate. if you are killed, your mother is all alone in the world.
oh, it's with pistols we fight. you are no match for best with the sword.
but swords are today impossible; captain best is -- is lame. he knocked his knee against the swinging park gate last night, as he was riding home, and can scarce move it now.
it must have been some other gate.
i have just explained to mister james that captain best is lame, and that swords are impossible.
a regular turk. i never yet knew the man who stood to captain best.
look here, roderick, my boy; this is silly business. the girl will marry best, mark my words; and as sure as she does, you'll forget her. you are but a boy. best is willing to consider you as such. dublin's a fine place, and if you have a mind to take a ride thither and see the town for a month, here are twenty guineas at your service. make best an apology, and be off.
roderick, fire at his neck -- hit him there under the gorget; see how the fool shows himself open.
then the world's rid of a coward. it's all over with him, roddy -- he doesn't stir.
i had news of you in dublin. faith, you've begun early, like your father's son, but i think you could not do better than as you have done. but why did you not write home to your poor mother? she has sent half-a-dozen letters to you in dublin.
we must write to her today, and you can tell her that you are safe and married to "brown bess."
i see you are thinking of a certain young lady at duganstown.
there's only six miss dugans now.  poor dorothy.
she took on so at your going away that she was obliged to console herself with a husband. she is now mrs. john best.
no, the very same one, my boy. he recovered from his wound. the ball you hit him with was not likely to hurt him. it was only made of tow. do you think the dugans would let you kill fifteen hundred a-year out of the family? the plan of the duel was all arranged in order to get you out of the way, for the cowardly englishman could never be brought to marry from fear of you. but hit him you certainly did, roderick, and with a fine thick plugget of tow, and the fellow was so frightened that he was an hour in coming to. we told your mother the story afterwards, and a pretty scene she made.
he has paid off your uncle's mortgage. he gave dorothy a coach- and-six. that coward of a fellow has been making of your uncle's family. faith, the business was well done. your cousins, michael and harry, never let him out of their sight, though he was for deserting to england, until the marriage was completed, and the happy couple off on their road to dublin. are you in want of cash, my boy? you may draw upon me, for i got a couple of hundred out of master best for my share and, while they last, you shall never want.
i should have left you a hundred guineas, roderick, but for a cursed run of ill-luck last night at faro.