"No pride about her!" said Brierley.

"I wouldn't exactly say that, Matthew," interposed Father Neal. "But her pride isn't the common kind."

"She's as proud as Lucifer!" broke in Nelligan, almost angrily. "Did you ever see her drive up to a shop-door in this town, and make the people come out to serve her, pointing with her whip to this, that, and t'other, and maybe giving a touch of the lash to the boy if he would n't be lively enough?"

"Well, I 'd never call her proud," rejoined old Hayes, "after seeing her sitting in Catty Honan's cabin, and turning the bread on the griddle for her, when Catty was ill."

"Is she handsome?" asked Ma.s.singbred, who was rather interested by the very discrepancy in the estimate of the young lady.

"We can agree upon that, I believe, sir," said the priest; "there 's no disputing about her beauty."

"I never saw her in a room," said Magennis; "but my 'august leader'

thought her masculine."

"No, no," said Nelligan; "she 's not. She has the Martin manner,--overbearing and tyrannical,--if you like; but she can be gentle enough with women and children."

"You have certainly given me a strong curiosity to see her," said Ma.s.singbred. "Does she always live here?"

"Always. I don't believe she was ever beyond the bounds of the county in her life!"

"And how does she pa.s.s her time?" asked he, with some astonishment.

"She manages the whole estate," said Nelligan; "her uncle 's a conceited old fool, incapable of anything, and lets her do what she likes; and so she drains, and plants, and encloses; makes roads, bridges, and even harbors; has all the new-fangled inventions about farming, and, if what I hear be true, is spending more money on the property than the fee-simple is worth."

"Yes, sir," chimed in Magennis; "and she 's trying hard to bring back the old feudal devotion to the Chief, which was the bane of Ireland.

She wants the tenants to have no will of their own, but just to vote whatever the landlord tells them. She had the impudence to tell my 'august leader' that they had no need of him down there,--that the county was too poor to waste its energies in factious squabbles."

"If she 'd let the people alone about their religion, I 'd think better of her," said Father Neal. "What does _she_ know about controversial points and disputed dogmas?"

"Maybe you 're wrong about that," broke in Peter Hayes. "She came to me the other day for ten shillings for a school, and she said, 'Come over, Mr. Hayes; come and tell me if there 's anything you are dissatisfied with.'"

"And did you go?" asked the priest.

"Faix! I did not," said Peter, with a dry look. "I thought the visit might cost me ten shillings, and so I stayed at home."

The manner in which he uttered these words produced a hearty laugh, in which he himself most good-humoredly took part.

"Well, she's good to the poor, anyhow," said Brierley; "and it's a new thing for one of her name to be so!"

"All policy, all scheming!" said Magennis. "She sees how the family influence has declined, and is fast becoming obliterated in this country, by reason of their worthlessness, insolence, and neglect of the people; and she 's just shrewd enough to see how far a little cajolery goes with poor Paddy; but, as my 'august leader' observed, it is not a frieze coat, nor a pair of brogues, that can compensate for the loss of that freedom that is every man's birthright; and it is not by an ounce of tea, or a dose of physic, we 'll ever see Ireland great, glorious, and free."

"'First gem of the earth, and first flower of the sea!'" exclaimed Hayes, with enthusiasm.

Nor in the moment was the blunder of his quotation noticed by any but Ma.s.singbred. "You are an admirer of Tommy Moore, I see, sir?" said he, to the old man.

"I am fond of 'The Meeting of the Waters,' sir," said Hayes, meekly, and like a man who was confessing to a weakness.

"And here 's the man to sing it!" cried Brierley, clapping the priest familiarly on the shoulder; a proposal that was at once hailed with acclamation.

"'T is many a long day I have n't sung a note," said Father Neal, modestly.

"Come, come, Father Neal; we'll not let you off that way. It's not under this roof that you can make such an excuse!"

"He 'd rather give us something more to his own taste," said Brierley.

"'To Ladies' eyes around, boys,'--eh, Father Rafferty?"

"That's my favorite of all the songs he sings," broke in Magennis.

"Let it be, 'To Ladies' eyes!'" cried Ma.s.singbred; "and we 'll drink 'Miss Martin's.' 'I 'll warrant she 'll prove an excuse for the gla.s.s.'"

And he sang the line with such a mellow cadence that the whole table cheered him.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 146]

To the priest's song, given with considerable taste and no mean musical skill, there followed, in due course, others, not exactly so successful, by Brierley and Magennis, and, at last, by old Peter himself, who warbled out a wonderful ditty, in a tone so doleful that two of the company fell fast asleep under it, and Brierley's nerves were so affected that, to support himself, he got most completely drunk, and in a very peremptory tone told the singer to desist!

"Don't you perceive," cried he, "that there 's a stranger present,--a young English cub,--come down to laugh at us? Have you no discretion,--have you no decency, Peter Hayes, but you must go on with your stupid old 'croniawn' about dimples and the devil knows what?"

"Another tumbler, Mr. Ma.s.singbred,--one more?" said the host, with the air, however, of one who did not exact compliance.

"Not for the world," said Jack, rising from table. "Have I your permission to light a cigar?"

"To do just whatever you please," said Nelligan, rather astonished at the formal preparations for smoking he now perceived brought forth, and which at the time we tell of were not so popular as in our own day.

The priest alone accepted Ma.s.singbred's offer of a "weed;" and Nelligan, opening a door into an adjoining room where tea was laid, threw also wide a little sash-door that led into the garden, whose cool and fragrant air was perfectly delicious at the moment. Jack strolled down the steps and soon lost himself in the dark alleys, not sorry to be left alone with his own thoughts, after a scene in which his convivial powers had been taxed to no mean extent.

"A clever young fellow! There's stuff in him," said the priest, in a whisper to Nelligan.

"And no impudence about him," said Brierley; "he's just like one of ourselves."

"He has a wonderful opinion of Joe!" said Nelligan.

"He's the very man for my 'august leader,'" said Magennis. "I 'd like to bring them together!"

"His father 's a Treasury Lord," said Nelligan, swelling at the thought of his being the host of such company!

"And I 'll tell you what, Dan Nelligan," said the priest, confidentially, "talents won't do everything, nowadays, without high connections; mark my words, and see if that young man does n't stand high yet. He has just got every requirement of success. He has good family, good looks, good abilities, and"--here he dropped his voice still lower--"plenty of bra.s.s. Ay, Dan, if Joe could borrow a little of his friend's impudence, it would be telling him something."

Nelligan nodded a.s.sentingly; it was about the only quality in the world which he could have believed Joe stood in any need of getting a loan of.

"Joe beat him out of the field," said Dan, proudly. "He told me so himself, this morning."

"No doubt; and he would again, where the contest was a college one; but 'Life,' my dear friend,--life demands other gifts beside genius."

"Ganius!" broke in old Hayes, with an accent of the profoundest contempt,--"Ganius! I never knew a 'Ganius' yet that was n't the ruin of all belonging to him! And whenever I see a young fellow that knows no trade, nor has any livelihood, who's always borrowing here and begging there, a torment to his family and a burden to his friends, I set him down at once for a 'Ganius.'"

"It's not _that_ I was alluding to, Mr. Hayes," said the priest, in some irritation. "I spoke of real ability, sterling powers of mind and thought, and I hope that they are not to be despised."

"Like my 'august leader's'!" said Magennis, proudly.