Then
off went Aunt Becky to something else; and in a little time remembered
the famous academy in Martin's-row, and looking at her watch, took her
leave in a prodigious hurry, and followed by Dominick, in full livery,
and two dogs, left Lilias again to the society of her own sad thoughts.
CHAPTER XLII.
IN WHICH DR. STURK TRIES THIS WAY AND THAT FOR A REPRIEVE ON THE EVE OF
EXECUTION.
So time crept on, and the day arrived when Sturk must pay his rent, or
take the ugly consequences. The day before he spent in Dublin
financiering. It was galling and barren work. He had to ask favours of
fellows whom he hated, and to stand their refusals, and pretend to
believe their lying excuses, and appear to make quite light of it,
though every failure stunned him like a blow of a bludgeon, and as he
strutted jauntily off with a bilious smirk, he was well nigh at his
wits' end. It was dark as he rode out by the low road to
Chapelizod--crest-fallen, beaten--scowling in the darkness through his
horse's ears along the straight black line of road, and wishing, as he
passed the famous Dog-house, that he might be stopped and plundered, and
thus furnished with a decent excuse for his penniless condition, and a
plea in which all the world would sympathise for a short
indulgence--and, faith! he did not much care if they sent a bullet
through his harassed brain.
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