["Murphy's face,"unlearned reader, appeareth, in Irish phrase,
to mean "pig's head."]

"'T is only the fortune of war, Dummie, and a mere trifle; the heads
manufactured at Thames Court are not easily put out of order. But tell
me, how come you here?"

"Vy, I had been lushing heavy vet--"

'Till you grew light in the head, eh,--and fell into the kennel?"

"Yes."

"Mine is a worse business than that, I fear;" and therewith Paul, in a
lower voice, related to the trusty Dummie the train of accidents which
had conducted him to his present asylum. Dummie's face elongated as he
listened; however, when the narrative was over, he endeavoured such
consolatory palliatives as occurred to him. He represented, first, the
possibility that the gentleman might not take the trouble to appear;
secondly, the certainty that no watch was found about Paul's person;
thirdly, the fact that, even by the gentleman's confession, Paul had not
been the actual offender; fourthly, if the worst came to the worst, what
were a few weeks' or even months' imprisonment?

"Blow me tight!" said Dummie, "if it be n't as good a vay of passing the
time as a cove as is fond of snuggery need desire!"

This observation had no comfort for Paul, who recoiled, with all the
maiden coyness of one to whom such unions are unfamiliar, from a
matrimonial alliance with the _snuggery_ of the House of Correction. He