Heffernan

“ He was still endeavoring to disentangle himself from the throng, when Lord Castlereagh's quick eye discovered him.
“And here comes Heffernan,” cried he, laughingly; “the only man wanting to fill up the measure of congratulations. Pray, my Lord, move one step and rescue our poor friend from suffocation.” ”

“ Forester is entirely dependent on her; and that reminds me of a most solemn pledge I made her to look after her 'dear Dick,' and prevent any entanglement in this barbarous land,—as if I had nothing else to think of! Write at once, Heffernan, and order him up; say he 'll lose his appointment by any further delay, and that I am much annoyed at his absence.”
While Heffernan descended to the library to write, Lord Castlereagh turned once more to sleep until it was time to dress for the Viceroy's dinner. ”

“ Even a boa, my dear Heffernan, when he swallows a goat, takes six months to digest his meal. No! no! such men must be taught reserve, if their own prudence does not suggest it!”
“I believe you are right, my Lord,” said Heffernan, thoughtfully; “O'Reilly is the very man to forget himself in the sunshine of court favor, and mistake good luck for desert.”
“With all his money, too,” rejoined Lord Castlereagh, “his influence will just be proportioned to the degree of acceptance his constituents suppose him to possess with us here. ”

“ By degrees the forces will grow stronger, according to the length and breadth of the principle you adopt,—make it emancipation, and I 'll insure you a lease of the county.” Heffernan smiled dubiously. “Ah, never mind Mr. Heffernan's look; these notions don't suit him. He 's one of the petty traders in politics, who like small sales and quick returns.”
“Such dealing makes fewest bankrupts,” said Heffernan, coolly.
“I own to you,” said O'Halloran, “the rewards are distant, but they 're worth waiting for. ”

“ Betimes you’d hear it remarked in Ardenoo, how that they and their land were well matched. For if some of their bottom-land was sour, so was the Heffernan temper; and they could be as crabbed and contrary in their ways as the furze that was bristling over their own hills. And in another thing they were like their farm. Whatever treatment they got, that’s what they’d give. If you acted well by a Heffernan, they’d do the same by you; but they’d never pass over a bad turn; and, troth! there’s more than the Heffernans of the opinion that it’s only a fool that forgets! ”

“ Young boys and girls are a bit too ready to forget that a man’s courting days doesn’t be always over, when the grey begins to show in his beard. No, in troth! and so by Heffernan. There was a warm stir about his heart and he stepping along up the boreen, back to his own place, and a feel like the spring sunshine came over him, and he tried to sing a bit of “The Bunch of Green Rushes,” but sure he hadn’t it right, nor couldn’t remember it, he hadn’t heard it those years past. ”

“ A man that's so ready for a contingency has generally some hand in contriving it.' And so he put him out of doors, and never saw more of him. Eh, Heffernan, was Jack right?” And again the old man broke into a hearty laugh, in which Heffernan, notwithstanding his discomfiture, could not refrain from participating.
“Well,” said he, as he arose to leave the room, “I feel twenty years younger for that hearty laugh. It reminds me of the jolly days we used to have long ago, with Price Godfrey and Bagenal Daly. By the way, where is Bagenal now, and what is he doing?” ”

“ Forester never spoke, but he grasped Heffernan's hand, and shook it with earnest cordiality.
“Yes, yes,” said Heffernan, as he returned the pressure; “men can be strong partisans, anxious and eager for their own side, but there is something higher and nobler than party.” He arose as he spoke, and walked towards the window, and then, suddenly turning round, and with an apparent desire to change the theme, asked, “But how came you here? ”

“ Heffernan walked on for some moments in silence, and, as if pondering over Hickman's words, repeated several times, half aloud: “No doubt of it,—no doubt of it.” Then added, in a louder tone: “The whole history of this family, Mr. O'Reilly, is a striking confirmation of a remark I heard made, a few days since, by a distinguished individual,—to you I may say it was Lord Cornwallis. 'Heffernan,' said he, 'this country is in a state of rapid transition; everything progresses but the old gentry of the land ”

“ 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. ”

“ He began planning how he could pay out Mickey.
He got himself back to the same spot, near the calves, to see what would happen. After a time, he saw Heffernan coming back, and little Barney Maguire with him. A very decent boy Barney was, quiet and agreeable; never too anxious for work, but very knowledgable about how things should be done, from a wake to a sheep-shearing. Heffernan always liked to have Barney with him at a fair.
The two of them stood near the calves, careless-like, as if they took no interest in them at all. ”

“ This is no piece of caprice,—no sudden outbreak of that eccentricity which you and others affect to fasten on me. No, Mr. Heffernan; I have come a hundred and fifty miles with an object, and not all the wily dexterity of even you shall balk me. To be plain, sir, there are reports current in the clubs and society generally that you have been the means of securing the Knight of Gwynne to the side of Government. I know—ay, and you know—how many of these rumors originate on the shallow foundation of men being seen together in public, and cultivating an intimacy on purely social grounds. ”

“ Con Heffernan's carriage was seen everywhere, and some avowed that at five o'clock he was driving with the third pair of posters he had that day employed. Bagenal Daly was also a conspicuous character “on town;” on foot and alone, he was at once recognized by the mob, who cheered him as an old but long-lost-sight-of acquaintance. The densest crowd made way for him as he came, and every mark of respect was shown him by those who set a higher price on his eccentricity and daring than even upon his patriotism ”

“ As I was saying a while ago, it’s hard to know exactly what is in your own mind, let alone in another’s. But it’s likely that what Christina was really thinking now was this: if once Heffernan spoke to Nelly, and got her to pass her word to him, the thing would be settled, for good and all. Heffernan would get the marriage over at once. An old man has no time to lose, courting. Not that Mickey was what people in general would count as old ”

“ I remember it well....”
“Sure, if you saw us, we saw you, too!” said Nelly; “Sunday ... sure enough! it was the day old Mickey Heffernan was....”
She stopped herself, and grew very red.
“The day Mickey Heffernan ... what?” said Jim.
“Ah, nothing at all!” said Nelly; “men does be shocking foolish betimes ... and quare conduction you got on with, that same day ... backing away from us, as if you thought we had the scarleteen, or something you’d take from us, that you wouldn’t let us within the bawl of an ass of you...!” ”

“ But sure, it’s better for a body be moving somewhere, even if it’s only to get you a prod of a thorn in the toe!”
“Marg? that’ll be a dauther of old Molally’s beyant, that is only after dying?” said Heffernan.
“The very person,” said Moll; “nice and even-going and quiet, and the girl the same. And not one in it now, only herself!”
“It’s a poor thing, to be with only a body’s self, then!” said Mickey; “the same as me; I haven’t one about the place inside or out, but meself; and I wanting to go to the fair to look for a couple or three calves and pigs. ”

“ These upstart Hickmans are not the elements of which a gentry can be formed.”
“O'Reilly still looks to you for the baronetcy, my Lord,” replied Heffernan, with a half-sneer. “You have him with or against you on that condition,—at least, so I hear.”
“Has he not had good fortune enough in this world to be satisfied? He has risen from nothing to be a man of eminence, wealth, and county influence; would it not be more reasonable in him to mature his position by a little patience, than endanger it by fresh shocks to public opinion? ”

“ Balloch, where the fair is held, is the wildest and most lonesome place in Ardenoo, with a steep rough bit of road leading up to it, very awkward to drive along. Up this comes Heffernan, on his side-car, driving his best, and in a great hurry to know where would he come on Hughie. He had it laid out in his own mind that sight nor light of his calves he never would get in this world again. ”

“ Con Heffernan to his hotel, after a London dinner-party. The late Secretary for Ireland had himself volunteered the politeness, anxious to hear some tidings of people and events which, in the busy atmosphere of a crowded society, were unattainable. He speedily ran over a catalogue of former friends and acquaintances, learning, with that surprise with which successful men always regard their less fortunate contemporaries, that this one was still where he had left him, and that the other jogged on his daily road as before, when he suddenly asked,—
“And the Darcys, what of them?” ”

“ In the course of time, there was a Heffernan in the Furry Farm, Michael by name, that was what you might call a chip of the old block. Quiet-going [4] in himself, he was; silent and fond of industering; and a bit near about money, on the top of all. You’ll often see people like that; as if them that worked hard had no time for enjoying what they make; whereas people that are poor and through-other will spend their last penny twice as free as what one like Heffernan would spend his first. And what’s more, they’ll get far better value out of it, too. ”

“ Here he paused and stammered, and at last stopped dead short, an expression of as much confusion as age and wrinkles would permit covering his hard, contracted features.
“You say truly,” said Heffernan, finishing what he guessed to be the sentiment,—“you say truly, the Darcys have run their race; when men's incumbrances have reached the point that his have, family influence soon decays. Now, this business of Gleeson's—” Had he fired a shot close to the old man's ear he could not have startled him more effectually than by the mention of this name. ”

“ In Ireland, the tale will tell badly; we always have more sympathy than censure for such offenders. In England, how many will know of his friends and connections, who never heard of your respectable bench of magistrates,—will it be very wonderful if they side with their countryman against the stranger?”
“How am I to face O'Halloran if I follow this counsel?” said O'Reilly, with a thoughtful but embarrassed air. “Then, as to Lord Castlereagh,” continued Heffernan, not heeding the question, “he will take your interference as a personal and particular favor. ”

“ He seemed, at least, to have done everything that wildness and eccentricity had ever devised, to have known intimately every man renowned for such exploits, and to have gone through a career of extravagance and dissipation quite sufficient to make him an unimpeachable authority in every similar case. The reserve which young men feel with regard to those older than themselves was never experienced in Con Heffernan's company ”

“ Still, he didn’t like the dirt and confusion, now that Julia was gone. So that’s why he enjoyed seeing Marg putting the things in order again.
When she had it all finished, it was beginning to grow dusk, and said Heffernan, “It’s a long step for yous to be getting home,” meaning Molally’s, “and it’s middling late, and there’s the chance of people along the road that might be a bit rough and noisy, after the fair. So I’ll just throw the harness, on the ould mare, and drive ye back.” ”

“ You may have all the benefit, if there be such, of the treason, and yet never rub shoulders with the traitor. You see I am eager on this point, and I confess I am very much so. Your son Beecham could not have a worse enemy in the world of Club and Fashion than this same Forester; he knows and is known to everybody.”
“But I cannot perceive how the thing is to be done,” broke in O'Reilly, pettishly; “you seem to forget that O'Halloran is not the man to be put off with any lame, disjointed story.”
“Easily enough,” said Heffernan, coolly; “there is no difficulty whatever. ”

“ See how the people stare admiringly at his green liveries; they scarcely guess that the owner is meditating a change of color. Well, Godfrey, in time for once. Why, Robert, you seem quite fagged with your day's exertion. Ah! Mr. O'Reilly, delighted to find you punctual. Let me present you to my old friend Sir Giles St. George. I believe, gentlemen, you need no introduction to each other. Burton has disappointed us; so we may order dinner at once.”
As Mr. Heffernan took the head of the table, not a sign of his former chagrin remained to be seen. ”

“ George, as with a malignant pleasure he continued to suggest matter of annoyance.
“He 's mistaken, however,” said Heffernan, with a sarcastic bitterness that came from his heart. “The day for rewards is gone by. He 'll never get the baronetcy by supporting the Government in this way. It is the precarious, uncertain ally they look more after. There is consummate wisdom, Giles, in not saying one's last word. O'Reilly does not seem aware of that. Here come Godfrey and Hume,” said he, as he looked out of the window. ”