CHAPTER THIRTY.
HOW I PAID OFF A SCORE, AND MADE A RATHER AWKWARD DISCOVERY.
I stood staring at the five-pound note which Flanagan had left in my hand in a state of utter bewilderment.
My first impulse was to give chase to my benefactor and compel him to take back the money.

My second was to do nothing of the sort, but rejoice with thankfulness over the help thus unexpectedly sent me.
It was little enough I had done to deserve any one's kindness, and it was only too reasonable to expect to have to get myself out of my own troubles.

But here, like some good fairy, my old Irish schoolfellow had stepped on to the scene, and sent all those troubles to the right-about with a single turn of the hand.
What rejoicings Jack and I had that night over my good fortune! What careful plans we made for a systematic repayment of the loan! and how jubilantly I looked forward to handing Hawkesbury back his thirty shillings in the morning! Since I had received that letter of his my wrath had somewhat abated towards him.

Much as I disliked and suspected him, still I could not feel quite certain that he might not after all have meant well by what he did, however blundering and objectionable a way he had taken to show it.

That, however, did not interfere with my satisfaction now at the prospect of being quits.
It was a positive luxury, as Jack and I entered the office next morning, to be able to meet his amiable, condescending smile in a straightforward way, and not by colouring up and looking confused and chafing inwardly.
I was anxious to get the ceremony over as soon as possible, and therefore walked straight up to his desk, and, placing the thirty shillings before him, said, in a voice which I did not trouble to conceal from the other clerks present.
"That's the thirty shillings you paid Wallop for me the other day, Hawkesbury.