["Whew!" thought Gammon, suddenly and infinitely relieved.]
"Ah, my dear sir, is that all?" he exclaimed, and shook Mr. Quirk cordially by the hand,--"at length you have made a friend of me indeed! But, to tell you the truth, I have long suspected as much; I have indeed!"
"Have you really? Hang me if anything can escape your lynx's eyes!--Well! there _is_ no accounting for tastes, is there?--especially among the women? Poor Dora's quite lost her heart--quite--she has--so help me Heaven!" continued Mr. Quirk, energetically.
"Well, my dear sir, and why this _surprise_?" inquired Gammon, earnestly. "I consider Titmouse to be a very handsome young fellow; and that he is already rapidly acquiring very gentlemanly manners; and as to his _fortune_--really--when one thinks of the thing--it would be most desirable to bring it about! Indeed, the sooner his heart's fixed, and his word's pledged, the better--for you must of course be aware that there will be many schemers on the look-out to entrap his frank and inexperienced nature--look, for instance, at Tag-rag."
"Eugh!" exclaimed Mr. Quirk, with a sudden motion of sickening disgust--"the old beast! I smoked him long ago! Now, _that_ I call villany, Gammon; infernal villany! Don't you?"
"Indeed, indeed, Mr. Quirk, I do; I quite agree with you! Upon my honor, I think it is a part of even _my_ duty towards our confiding and inexperienced client, if possible, to protect him against such infamous designs."
"Right--right, Gammon; by Jove, you're quite right--I _quite_ agree with you!" replied Quirk, earnestly, not observing the lambent smile upon the features of his calm, crafty, and sarcastic companion.
"You see, however," said Gammon, "we've a very delicate and difficult game to play with old Tag-rag. He's certainly a toad, ugly and venomous--but then he's got a jewel in his head--he's got money, you know, and, to serve _our_ purposes, we must really give him some hopes about his daughter and Titmouse."
"Faugh! eugh! feugh! Nasty wretch! a little trollop! It makes one sick to hear of her! And, by the way, now we're on that subject, Gammon, what do we want of this wretch Tag-rag, now that Titmouse has actually got the property?"
"Want of him? Money--security, my dear sir!--money!"