entertainment there. His inward economy was as follows: he had his
half-pay, a thousand pounds, about a hundred a year that his father
left, and his wife had sixty pounds a year from the mother; which the
mother, of course, never paid. He had no practice, for he was absorbed
in attention to his Jemima and the children, whom he used to wash, to
dress, to carry out, to walk, or to ride, as we have seen, and who
could not have a servant, as their dear blind mother could never be left
alone. Mrs. Haggarty, a great invalid, used to lie in bed till one, and
have breakfast and hot luncheon there. A fifth part of his income was
spent in having her wheeled about in a chair, by which it was his duty
to walk daily for an allotted number of hours. Dinner would ensue, and
the amateur clergy, who abound in Ireland, and of whom Mrs. Haggarty
was a great admirer, lauded her everywhere as a model of resignation and
virtue, and praised beyond measure the admirable piety with which she
bore her sufferings.

Well, every man to his taste. It did not certainly appear to me that SHE
was the martyr of the family.

"The circumstances of my marriage with Jemima," Dennis said to me, in
some after conversations we had on this interesting subject, "were the
most romantic and touching you can conceive. You saw what an impression
the dear girl had made upon me when we were at Weedon; for from the
first day I set eyes on her, and heard her sing her delightful song of
'Dark-eyed Maiden of Araby,' I felt, and said to Turniquet of ours, that
very night, that SHE was the dark-eyed maid of Araby for ME--not that
she was, you know, for she was born in Shropshire. But I felt that I had
seen the woman who was to make me happy or miserable for life. You know
how I proposed for her at Kenilworth, and how I was rejected, and how I
almost shot myself in consequence--no, you don't know that, for I said
nothing about it to anyone, but I can tell you it was a very near thing;
and a very lucky thing for me I didn't do it: for,--would you believe
it?--the dear girl was in love with me all the time."

"Was she really?" said I, who recollected that Miss Gam's love of those
days showed itself in a very singular manner; but the fact is, when
women are most in love they most disguise it.

"Over head and ears in love with poor Dennis," resumed that worthy
fellow, "who'd ever have thought it? But I have it from the best
authority, from her own mother, with whom I'm not ov