mr. o'higgins, i cannot say how grateful i am for your timely assistance to my wife.
mr. o'higgins, we are in your debt, and rest assured, sir, you have friends in this house whenever you are in dublin. mister o'higgins, i wonder if i know your good father?
oh, i am thinking of the o'higgins of redmondstown. general o'higgins was a close friend of my wife's dear father, colonel granby somerset.
i have heard of them.
my love, i wish i had known of your coming, for bob moriaty and i just finished the most delicious venison pasty, which his grace the lord lieutenant, sent us, with a flash of sillery from his own cellar. you know the wine, my dear? but as bygones are bygones, and no help for them, what say ye to a fine lobster and a bottle of as good claret as any in ireland? betty, clear these things from the table, and make the mistress and our young friend welcome to our home.
i'm sorry, mr. o'higgins, but i don't seem to have any small change. may i borrow a ten-penny piece to give to the girl?
i needn't ask whether you had a comfortable bed. young fred pimpleton slept in it for seven months, during which he did me the honor to stay with me, and if he was satisfied, i don't know who else wouldn't be.
whom have i been harboring in my house? who are you, sirrah?
you're an impostor, young man, a schemer, a deceiver!
tut, tut! i can play at fencing as well as you, mr. roderick james. ah! you change color, do you? your secret is known, is it? you come like a viper into the bosom of innocent families; you represent yourself as the heir to my friends the o'higgins of castle o'higgins; i introduce you to the nobility and gentry of this methropolis; i take you to my tradesmen, who give you credit. i accept your note for near two hundred pounds, and what do i find? a fraud.
not master o'higgins of watertown, but roderick james of the devil only knows where.
he may go hang for me, and he's better be off quickly, for i shall go to the magistrate if i see him again.