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 he said, with a violent chuckle. "If I had not had some such suspicion I might not have climbed up all those dark stairs at a quarter-past ten of a winter's night."

"Without your dinner."

"Without my dinner. Why, if that fellow hasn't forgotten the black currant jelly. But here he comes with his poisonous claret."

"Tobin is a brilliant man," said Northcote, poising his glass after having replenished it. "Irish to the bone; a real discovery; ought to go far. But far as he ought to go and will go, there is one name in your list that will surpass him."

"That is where I cannot agree with you, my son," said the solicitor, with confidential and parental bonhomie, for this subject lay at the source of his intellectual pride. "You must know somewhat to have found out about Tobin; but when you name his superior you betray your youth."

"I concede it is quite impossible for me to name Tobin's superior without betraying my youth."

"Go to," said the solicitor, with an air of indulgence that he reserved for the young and promising. "Don't labor the point. It wants experience to detect greatness in the shell. Michael Tobin will easily be the first upon my list."

"There is one who will surpass Michael Tobin," said the young man.

"Not among those I have mentioned."

"True. As is usual with the prophet, you don't dare to affirm the authentic name."

"Upon my word I can't think who you mean!"

"One Henry Northcote."