be no
disqualification. Our savage friend, in fact, insists on asking
everybody he sees, and we are lucky if we escape the infantry and the
junior bar. Here's the list,--a goodly catalogue truly, and such a
_macedoine_ of incongruities has been rarely assembled, even at old
Kennyfeck's dinner-table."

"Why, I see few others than the people we met there t' other day."

"Not many; but please to remember that even a country house has limits,
and that some of the guests, at least, must have separate rooms. To be
serious, Charley, I have misused the King's press damnably; we have such
a party as few have ever witnessed. There are the Kilgoffs, the Whites,
the Hamiltons, along with the Clan Kennyfeck, the Ridleys, and Mathew
Hannigan, Esquire, of Bally-Hanni-gan, the new Member of Parliament for
Dunrone, and the last convert to the soothing doctrines of Downie Meek."

"Is Downie coming?" lisped the aide-de-camp.

"Ay, and his daughter, too. He wrote one of his velvety epistles,
setting forth the prayer of his petition in favor of 'a little girl yet
only in the nursery.'"

"Yes, yes; I know all that. Well, I 'm not sorry. I like Jemmy. She is
a confounded deal better than her father, and is a capital weight to put
on a young horse, and a very neat hand too. Who next? Not the Dean, I
hope."

"No; we divided on the Dean, and carried his exclusion by a large
majority. Mrs. Kennyfeck was, I believe, alone in the lobby."

"Glad of that! No one can expect an Irish visit in the country without
rain, and he 's an awful fellow to be caged with, when out-o'-door work
is impracticable."

"Then there are the Latrobes and the Heatherbys; in fact, the whole
set, with a Polish fellow, of course a Count,--Deuroominski; a literary
tourist, brought by Mrs. White, called Howie; and a small little dark
man one used to see two seasons ago, that sings the melodies and tells
Irish legends,--I forget the name."

"Promiscuous and varied, certainly; and what is the order of the course?
Are there to be games, rural sports, fireworks, soaped pigs, and other
like intellectualities?"

"Precisely; a kind of coming-of-age thing on a grand scale. I have
engaged Somerton's _chef_; he has just left his place. Gunter sends
over one of his people; and Dubos, of the Cadran Bleu, is to forward two
hampers per week from Paris. Hicksley is also to provide all requisites
for private theatricals. In fact, nearly everything has been attended
to, save the h