"I assure you, M'Mahon," replied the agent, in the last interview he
ever had with him, "I assure you I have done all in my power to bring
matters about; but without avail. It is a painful thing to have to do
with an obstinate man, M'Mahon; with a man who, although he seems quiet
and easy, will and must have everything his own way."
"Well, sir," replied M'Mahon, "you know what his dying father's words
wor to me."
"And more than I know them, I can assure you," he whispered, in a very
significant voice, and with a nod of the head that seemed to say,
"your landlord knows them as well as I do. I have done my duty, and
communicated them to him, as I ought."
M'Mahon shook his head in a melancholy manner, and said,--
"Well, sir, at any rate I know the worst. I couldn't now have any
confidence or trust in such a man; I could depend upon neither his word
or his promise; I couldn't look upon him as a friend, for he didn't
prove himself one to my son when he stood in need of one. It's clear
that he doesn't care about the welfare and prosperity of his tenantry;
and for that raison--or rather for all these raisons put together--I'll
join my son, and go to a country where, by all accounts, there's better
prospects for them that's honest and industrious than there is in this
unfortunate one of ours,--where the interest of the people is so much
neglected--neglected! no, but never thought of at all! Good-bye, sir,"
he added, taking up his hat, whilst the features of this sterling and
honest man were overcast with a solemn and pathetic spirit, "don't
consider me any longer your tenant.
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