near me.

'Jack,' whispered he, 'come a little this way.' He drew aside a curtain
as he spoke, and we entered a boudoir, where a buffet of refreshments
was placed. Here the scene was ludicrous in the extreme, from the
incongruous mixture-of persons of so many nations and languages who
were chatting away and hobnobbing to one another in all the dismembered
phrases of every tongue in Europe; loud laughter, however, poured
from one corner of the room, whither O'Grady directed his steps, still
holding my arm. A group of Cossack officers in full scarlet costume,
their loose trousers slashed with gold embroidery and thrust into wide
boots of yellow leather, stood in a circle round a person whom we could
not yet perceive, but who, we were enabled to discover, was exercising
his powers of amusement for this semi-savage audience, whose wild shouts
of laughter broke forth at every moment. We made our way at length
through the crowd, and my eyes at last fell upon the figure within. I
stared; I rubbed my eyes; I actually began to doubt my very senses, when
suddenly turning his joyous face beaming with good-humour towards me, he
held forth his hand and called out, 'Captain, my darling, the top of the
morning to you. This beats Stephen's Green, doesn't it?'

[Illustration: 3-164]

'Mr. Paul Rooney!' said I.

'No, no! Monsieur de Roni, if you please,' said he, again breaking out
into a fit of laughing. 'Lord help you, man, I've been christened since
I came abroad. Let me present you to my friends.' Here Paul poked a tall
Cossack in the ribs to attract his attention, and then pointing to
me, said: 'This is Captain Hinton; his name's a poser--a cross between
chincough and a house-key. Eh, old fellow?'

A Tartar grin was the reply to this very intelligible speech; but a
bumper of champagne made everything comprehensible between them. Mr.
Rooney's hilarity soon showed me that he had not forgotten his native
habits, and was steadily bent upon drinking glass for glass with his
company, even though they only came in detachments. With Bashkir
chiefs, Pomeranian barons, Rhine graaf s, and Polish counts he seemed as
intimate as though he had passed as much of his time in the Caucasus as
the Four Courts, and was as familiar with the banks of the Don as ever
he had been with those of the Dodder.

'And is it really our old friend Mrs. Paul who entertains this host of
czars and princes?'

'Is it really only now that you've guessed it?' said