he had met the evening before at dinner, that he would do him the favor of an early visit, in which his lordship proposed to accompany him. To hear was to obey with Ulick. His toilet was made, himself seated in his friend's cab, and his interview commenced and concluded with the minister in a space of time incredibly short-and comfortably conclusive to our hero, on whom it imposed an office of no great labour, with a hundred pounds each quarter day as a set off against fatigue. Meantime the Eltons proceeded in their bustle, and elated as he was with his own escape from poverty, it still was a drawback on his joy to witness their departure; and it was not until the coach had whirled away, and he had time to analyze his own sensations, that he began to suspect that his sorrows were not single, and that the quiet and gentle beauty and never tiring kindness of Fanny Elton, had made and left impressions which added pangs to parting, and made him miserable amidst all his good fortune. It was not, indeed, the first time that he had checked the feelings in her favour which he felt it impossible altogether to withhold; but he did so, and from the honest feeling that, with a fortune of £15,000 she was a prize to which he had no right to aspire. "But now," he said, "now that I have placed my foot on the first step of Fortune's ladder, let me try whether industry and integrity of purpose cannot advance me, and then Thus thinking, he commenced his career in the immediate department of the Marquis's friend, and under his own patronage, filling up his spare hours in study, in order to do honour to his friend and credit to himself; and always welcome to that table and fireside, which, amidst all their warmth and splendour, exhibited nothing so genial or brilliant as the kind heart that presided there. Months, three-four-six rolled by, and at his first vacation, he was preparing for a week's trip to Bath to see his friends the Eltons, when late at night-so late as to make the thing remarkable, the hall-door of his lodgings was visited by a sharp and incessant clamour, which sent the "man of all work" from his position at the kitchen fire, reeling and staggering along the passages, and up the stairs, to quiet the vehement demand. "I have travelled so far and fast," he said, as he rose to meet Ulick's bow, to impart my pleasant intelligence, that I wished to have it told before I slept another night upon it. You are of course aware of your close relationship to Lord Kilroan, Mr. Blake ?" 66 Perfectly aware of it, sir." "He is dead, and by this time buried. He caught cold shooting wild geese on his own lake, and so, poor gentleman, a fever finished him. You will also, doubtless, remember that he had a brother?" "Remember it-surely." "It was a strange circumstance, but we have a very peaceable gentleman in our neighbourhood, that wouldn't raise his hand to a cat, nor never did in the way of anger, until he was cruelly provoked to it by having the lie thrown in his teeth by your unfortunate cousin; and then, faith, the first pistol he ever fired went souse into the bowels of the man that offended him, leaving him a dead man as well as his brother; so that you see it is said by their ill-wishers, that the one got himself shot like a goose, and the other got his death by goose shooting." "This is strange news, sir." "But mighty pleasant for you, sir; for I am deputed by your mother to carry you her blessing, this letter, and the tidings of your being for the last three days my Lord Viscount Kilroan, with as pretty an estate as any nobleman need wish to hunt over. And now, my lord, that I have told my tale, I will leave these credentials, and call at ten to-morrow morning." He made his bow and withdrew, leaving his auditor literally so astounded with the suddenness of his good fortune, as to render thought or utterance for the present all but impossible. His visitor had withdrawn, and he had sate down to reflect calmly on his elevation, when once more the servant appeared to say that another man, who had arrived at the same time as his former visitor, was still waiting below and demanded to see him. "Shew him up by all means, John." The man entered the room, very dissimilar in appearance to Mr. O'Sullivan. It was Elton's old and confidential servant, Thompson. He looked jaded and harassed. Ulick started forward on seeing him. "Good heavens, Thompson! you hereand at this hour. What, in the name of mercy, has happened? Your master-is he well or ill?' "Well, sir, "And-and-Miss Elton? How is she? -how does she? Why do you put your handkerchief to your eyes? Speak! "I have a right to grieve for her, sir." "Then she is-am I to understand-that she is dead?" "Good lack, no sure, sir," said the old man rapidly, "I didn't say that-bad as it is, it aint so bad as that.' Ulick felt a mountain removed from his breast; he threw himself into a seat, and the man proceeded to tell his story, sad in its details, although not altogether unexpected by the hearer, from recent reports which had reached him. "And so, my good Thompson, this is the sum total of your melancholy story. Your master is, as you fear, ruined by his own imprudence-positively rejected by Sir Jasper, whose doors have been closed against him; and all this re-commencement of a foolish career bears date from the arrival of his friend, Mr. Chapman, in Bath—is it not so ?" It is indeed, sir. I fear that even my dear young lady's fortune has not escaped. I heard Mr. Chapman urging him the other day to use it." "I never was mistaken in Mr. Chapman. He is a fox who it must be my business to unkennel, and I will and can do so or I am mistaken. I have got on his track, and it will be my own fault if he escape me. Can you bear the fatigue of an immediate return ?" "The chaise is waiting, sir; my poor young lady's last directions to me were to entreat of you to come to her if possible without delay, as my master's temper and habits are so greatly changed that she is in despair about him.' "Ulick sat down, and wrote a note of apology to Mr. O'Sullivan, begging of him to follow him to Bath if possible, whither urgent business had obliged him to go: and this done, another half hour saw him on his road to Bath, determined on two things-to save the brother from destruction if he could, and to marry the sister if she would have him. THE RIVALS. "BUT what the dickens is a poor fellow to do, Mr. Patrick, when he's in for it, and can't help himself?" "Can't you try and reason yourself out of it, Denny ?" "Raison myself out of it! and sure I did try and raison myself out of it, 'till I bothered the heart and sowl out of me with the fair dint of trying to forget her, and her eyes, and her ways, and them words of her that slidders out of her mouth, as if every one of them was butthered with honey, and so they do, and be danged —, ha! ha!" and the lover cut at a thistle, and laughed, and blushed at his own vehemence. into a sort of an uneasy slumber, Mr. Patrick; but so sure as I begin the morning by resolving not to think of her, the devil a haporth else I can do for the remainder of the day." "Pho! forget her, man, forget her; there are as good fish in the sea as ever were caught, and as pretty girls in the parish as Mary Dacey; why can't you fall in love with some of them ?" "Aye, faith! why can't I! that's just the question I ask myself, too, a hundred times a day; and so I would fall in love with one or other of them, only just as I'm about it, up starts Mary Dacey plain before my face, and damn the toe-God forgive me for swearing-but not a sweet word more can I squeeze out of myself for love or moneythat's the truth for you, Mr. Patrick.” "It's a hard case, I acknowledge, Denny; but what can I do for you ?" "That's what brought me here, sir; they are your tenants as well as myself; and if "But again, sir; they say a girleen is never so sure of her own mind as not to wish to change it now and then, may be; she's better and handsomer than others-at least in my eyes, God help me, but still-sure isn't she but a woman after all ?" "But she doesn't love you, it seems?" 66 Who says that? she didn't go so far did she ?" said the lover, with a face glowing like a furnace. 'Why-no, not to me, for I never asked the question; but if she loves you, why don't she marry you?" "But I'm not jealous of her, sir, thanks be to God! she's like Phil Bradley's filly; if I can't catch her myself, no one else can but then the filly comes to the hand after her frolic's over, there's the difference," and he closed his simile with a sigh." "But couldn't you contrive to make her jealous of you? Now do you take me?" "Never take me if I do, then, Mr. Patrick, until you insense me a bit farther if you please, sir." Why every one knows that you're a likely young fellow, that might pick and choose out of the whole parish if you liked, only for this love fit of yours for old Dacey's daughter." "He is old, sir, but he's a dacent man, too." "The devil a know I know, Mr. Patrick, what's the raison of it, saving, that like the pigs, she is always bent on being contrary." "Very true, now let me see; to-morrow "Then you think she does love you ?" Keeran's child is to be christened, isn't it? The poor young fellow faltered-then Yes; bye the bye, I am to be the godfather sniggled a little-then pulled up the waist--I promised him I would. Well, as it his band of his breeches, and then suddenly first, and a boy; and coming into snug saidquarters, of course all the neighbours will be there-girls and all, to welcome it home." "I suppose so, sir; Tom's not the man to keep his bottle corked or his neighbours dry.' Why then I think she does-tho', by the gorra's, I don't say that neither, for if she does, why doesn't she tell me so out of the face. I'm well enough to do in the worldbut then, again, she ever and always had ways of her own with her." "Queer ways, Denny-eh ?" "Quare enough, sir; for what she thinks handsome that she'll stick to, like a burr to a breeches, or a mouse to a meal bag-not a lie I'm telling you, sir, though you may laugh at my hillus-teration, as Mr. Coghlan below, the schoolmaster, calls it.' "Well, now, Denny, if you think she loves you, why don't you teaze her a little ?" "Taize her, is it? by the sun that shines I dursn't only think on such a thing, man. Taize her! why she's as unaisy to come near in the way of kindness as a gallopping pig in a potato furrow-never take me if she isn't. For a shake hands or that a-way she's quiet and friendly enough, and she loves the boords, and takes to a jig as kindly as another; but as to putting an arm round her waist, or slipping it over her neck, or stealing or struggling for a kiss, just as a gentle taizing, as you called it "Yes, but I didn't mean that sort of teazing, Denny." "Didn't you, sir; I'm sure I know no other; that comes natural to one, I think." "So it does, but it won't do in this case." Augh! I know that," said Denny with a dejected air, as he thought of it. 66 do ?" Suppose you try what jealousy would 66 Very good; there will be a dance of course; now couldn't you contrive to dance with another girl, and to sit by her and pay attention to her-in short, what I mean is, that by seeming to neglect Mary for another, you will make her think of you, and regret your loss." "If I could think that, Mr. Patrick?" And, under the influence of his young landlord, he did think it at last, and between them a plan was concocted (indeed we should rather give the credit of it to the friend, as the lover was induced to join it by strong intreaty,) by which Denny was to exhibit a spirit of contumacy, which, according to the views laid down, was to try the loving mettle of pretty Mary Dacey. Nay, so decided was the trial to be, so minute the preparations for that event, that it was even arranged who was to be the favoured fair for the time being; and although the selection of Ellen Niall was rather the suggestion of Mr. Patrick than his own, still as she was admitted on all hands to be a very pretty girl, and supposed by many to have a sort of sheep's eye after Denny himself, he could offer no feasible objection, and therefore submitted, merely observing that, "after all, may be Ellen was as good as any, for she was always ready for fun, no matter who was the promoter of it; ever on the floor, whoever pays the piper; a neat hand at a 290 joke, wherever she foundit; like a young grey-forth her fruits in summer, and she that can hound, the man that followed the hare was do it so gaily. Sure it's a sort of midwife her master. To be sure there were people," I am to her, sir, and well she pays me, I'll he continued, "who said she had two ways not deny it. If I help her at a pinch, she in her, and neither of them good; but many is always sure to return the favour. Well, a man says more than his prayers; and as sir, about the lease, if you please?" for the women, God bless them, and send them civiler tongues in their heads, sure the man that said they butter their bread with scandal, might have told a lie-and no doubt he did-although," argued Denny, "when I hear them betimes over the tea-pot, I can't help thinking it a pity he came so desperate near the truth without hitting it." Mr. Patrick laughed, and so did Denis; and that plan arranged, Denny looked serious again, and set off on a new and very differ ent score. "And now, Mr. Patrick, if you've another moment to spare, sir, I'd like to ask another question or two respecting that lease." "What lease, Denny, do you mean?" "The lease of my farm, sir, surely." "Why it's not out yet, nor won't be for God knows how long-seven or eight months I believe; time enough between this and that to think of it, you know." "True for you, sir, but my father used to say that he's the best manager that provides beforehand; the never an egg a bird lays 'till she has a warm nest under her-no one but a cuckoo does that, and every one knows, the thief of the world, that she daren't shew her nose in the day light.' "Well, you are no cuckoo, at all events." "God forbid, sir; I wouldn't leave anything willingly to chance, if I could prevent it honestly; it's not my way, and that's the reason I'd like to make a bargain with you about a renewal of my little place, in order that I may know how I ain to stand, and for fear I should owe any man a penny." Why, I haven't made up my mind on the matter; but you know your land is the best in the country?" "So it ought, faith, sir; feed a lean cow on clover, and it's not thinner she'll be getting any way; don't I treat it as Brian treats his flashy wife-always dressing her up to keep her in humour." "You have been an improving tenant certainly," said his landlord, coolly. "I couldn't be otherwise, sir; there isn't an inch of the ground that I haven't played over-aye, in my grandfather's time, before ever my own father came into possession that was; and, by the powders, I think it would look like a sort of manslaughter to let my ould play-fellow, as I may call it, go without giving her plenty of help to bring But Denny, with all his eloquence and humour, could get no promise of any kind. It was in vain that he reminded his landlord that his forefathers and his forefathers always found it handy to know each other's mind; but Denny forgot to add (or indeed he did add it without apparent effect at present) that none of his progenitors had had his own prudence and proper agricultural education. With all his natural love of frolic and waggery, there wasn't a grain of vice or idleness in his composition. It must be an early lark whose song was heard before Denny was a field in the morning; and never a horse in his yoke, as he was wont to say, worked harder, or supped better than himself. Signs on it, every thing throve with him, for every thing was done on system. His neighbours called him one of the new lights, but he laughed at or bantered them; sowed clover with his barley; took only one corn crop where they had three; had the best swedes and the heaviest mangel in the country; took as much care of his manure heap as he did of his cows, and as much care of his cows as he did of himself" more, by dad !" as old Dick Dacey used to say, "for they had a range of stalls that might sarve a duke, and better bedding than thousands of Christians." His ploughs and harrows were perfection; his system of draining equal to every thing else; he had built a new barn, added a room or two to his cottage, squared his fields-pho! he was a man after Martin Doyle or Mr. Blacker's heart-and, above all, was a subscriber to the Irish Farmers' Magazine, and the only man in-God knows where, who possessed a sub-soil plough, and—and a— lactometer!! It is unnecessary to hesitate about naming the instrument, for few of his neighbours could pronounce it at all. At a word, he was a sample of what a sober, intelligent, and provident agriculturist ought to be in every country; of what they really are in most, and of what we hope never to comb a grey hair until we see them become in our own dear country. For good and racy humour, an honest and confiding heart, and an enthusiastic love of his hearth and homestead, no human being could surpass him. integrity, because the first brought him a He loved industry and weighty purse, and the other secured him 291 "I'll dance with him certainly, mother; that is, if he asks me." "No fear of that, Mary; though to tell heaven's truth, you don't deserve it at his hands, poor fellow." "And why, mother dear ?" "I'll tell you why, then," said the father, from the inside of the large fire-place, where he sat smoking his evening's pipe. "I'll tell you why, then, you don't deserve it, Mary Dacey; because you use the man like a dog, and worse than many a dog is treated-that's the reason, so it is." a quiet conscience; he exulted in his labours, | in her vicinity that would have forgiven the and added item by item to his hoard, in theft, and willingly compromised with the order that this again might be expended on felon. Let us hear her speak: his darling fields-the play-fellows of his infancy, as he called them in his national poetical idiom-and while he spent guinea after guinea on them, and on his offices and houses, perhaps the last thought that came into his head was any thing that even approached towards a doubt that his new lease wasn't as secure as if it lay by the side of the old one in the mahogany drawer beside the parlour fire. Major M'Neill, his present landlord's father, had promised it; true, he was dead; but Mr. Patrick was his oldest acquaintance-the most intimate of his early "It is without my knowledge and against playmates; their degrees were different, but childhood laughs at rank and links with con- my will, then, father, if I do," said Mary, geniality; he had followed his gun, hunted meekly; "he's not the man to be ill treated his hound, landed his salmon, shared of without a cause, and he never gave me any." "I believe you, faix," said the mother, his cup and his couch, and wept at his departure" for some foreign college, Cam-"if making a fool of himself for your sake something he thought they called it." Meantime, he himself was drafted off to an agricultural school, and had buried his parents, assumed their place, and profitted amply by the knowledge he had gained, long before Mr. Patrick had returned from London and Paris, to close his father's eyes, and take his place. We have seen what his advice was to Denny Dolan, and having done so, let's follow our story into the cottage of the capricious colleen whom he loved, if not wisely, but too well-the pride of his heart, the apple of his eye-and the one drop of bitters in his otherwise sweet and well sea soned cup. She was an acknowledged beauty, and yet no one could tell where her beauty lay. She was not a portrait painter's beauty certainly (let us except Lely and Rothwell); there were no picturesque points about her. There are passages in M'Cready's actingin Madame Caradori Allen's singing-in Wordsworth's best sonnets-in Shakspeare's Richard the Second, as old Kean used to recite them-and there are a thousand scenes as you sail up the Shannon, that would be apt to remind such a man as Charles Lamb of her, for instance, and tempt him to furnish her forth in his quaint but excellent manner isn't doing it. I tell you what, Mary dear, "No, mother; God forbid!" the " "I won't deny it, mother dear, at all events," said her daughter with a smile. "Hasn't he full and plenty ? isn't he quiet, sober, and industrious? who is there in the whole barony can touch him for good huwould you have? mour or fine talking? the never a one, I'll be bound, and what more answer me that ?" "Nothing, mother; I would wish for nothing more." "Then, in the name of the Father, why don't you take him, and not be waiting and waiting until Bessy Brian, or Mag Fahy, or she stopped short, for at Ellen Niall the moment Mr. Patrick M'Neill entered the room. "Ellen Niall," he asked, " wasn't that the name you mentioned, Mrs. Dacey? what, have you heard the report, too?" What report, Mr. Patrick?" "About her and Denny Dolan; they say She stole upon my heart, and ere I knew I liked he is going to marry her." By heaven I loved her. Long life to old Beaumont and his 'twin star! Yes, she stole upon you-that's the proper phrase; and when she had a furtive possession, there were more than one or two "Who says?" said old Dacey, from his hob, in the manner of one who asks after tidings that are sure to be any thing but pleasant when told. "Why, I can't say particularly who says |