its neck as neat as need be; but, as the devil's luck would have it, I
didn't go half an hour when a horse came galloping up behind me. I turned
round, and, by the blessed light, it was Sir Dinny himself was on it!"

"Sir Dennis Pack?"

"Yes, bad luck to his hook nose. 'What are you doing there, my fine
fellow?' says he. 'What's that you have dragging there behind you?'

"'A boneen, sir,' says I. 'Isn't he a fine crayture?--av he wasn't so
troublesome.'

"'Troublesome, troublesome--what do you mean?'

"'Just so,' says I. 'Isn't he parsecutiug the life out of me the whole
morning, following me about everywhere I go? Contrary bastes they always
was.'

"'I advise you to try and part company, my friend, notwithstanding,' says
he; 'or may be it's the same end you'll be coming to, and not long either.'
And faix, I took his advice; and ye see, Mister Charles, it's just as I was
saying, they're like the women, the least thing in life is enough to bring
them after us, _av ye only put the 'comether'_ upon them."

"And now adieu to the Villa Nuova," said I, as I rode slowly down the
avenue, turning ever and anon in my saddle to look back on each well-known
spot.

A heavy sigh from Mike responded to my words.

"A long, a last farewell!" said I, waving my hand towards the trellised
walls, now half-hidden by the trees; and, as I spoke, that heaviness of the
heart came over me that seems inseparable from leave-taking. The hour of
parting seems like a warning to us that all our enjoyments and pleasures
here are destined to a short and merely fleeting existence; and as each
scene of life passes away never to return, we are made to feel that youth
and hope are passing with them; and that, although the fair world be as
bright, and its pleasures as rich in abundance, our capacity of enjoyment
is daily, hourly diminishing; and while all around us smiles in beauty and
happiness, that we, alas! are not what we were.

Such was the tenor of my thoughts as I reached the road, when they were
suddenly interrupted by my man Mike, whose meditations were following
a somewhat similar channel, though at last inclining to different
conclusions. He coughed a couple of times as if to attract my attention,
and then, as it were half thinking aloud, he muttered,--

"I wonder if we treated the young ladies well, anyhow, Mister Charles, for,
faix, I've my doubts on it."

CHAPTER XIX.

THE LINES.

When we reached Lescas, we found that