es her look of gratified attention for the merry
mockery of a hearty laugh. No tact, no _savoir faire_, no knowledge of
the world, no old soldierism that ever I heard of, was proof against
this. To go back is bad; to stand still, worse; to go on, impossible.

The best--for I believe it is the only thing to do--is to turn approver
on your own misdeeds, and join in the laughter against yourself.
Now this requires no common self-mastery, and an _aplomb_ few
young gentlemen under twenty possess--hence both my failure and its
punishment.

That staircase which, but a moment before, I wished might be as long as
a journey to Jerusalem, I now escaped from with thankfulness. Concealing
my discomfiture as well as I was able, I bustled about, and finally
secured a place for my companion at one of the side-tables. We were too
far from the head of the table, but the clear ringing of his grace's
laughter informed me of his vicinity; and, as I saw Miss Bellew shrank
from approaching that part of the room, I surrendered my curiosity to
the far more grateful task of cultivating her acquaintance.

All the ardour of my attentions--and I had resumed them with nearly as
much warmth, although less risk of discomfiture, for I began to feel
what before I had only professed--all the preoccupation of my mind,
could not prevent my hearing high above the crash and clatter of the
tables the rich roundness of Mrs. Rooney's brogue, as she recounted to
the duke some interesting trait of the O'Toole family, or adverted to
some classical era in Irish history, when, possibly, Mecaenas was mayor
of Cork, or Diogenes an alderman of Skinner's Alley.

'Ah, my dear!--the Lord forgive me! I mean your grace.'

'I shall never forgive you, Mrs. Rooney, if you change the epithet.'

'Ah, your grace's worship, them was fine times; and the husband of an
O'Toole, in them days, spent more of his time harrying the country with
his troops at his back, than driving about in an old gig full of writs
and latitats, with a process-server behind him.'

Had Mr. Rooney, who at that moment was carving a hare in total
ignorance of his wife's sarcasm, only heard the speech, the chances
are ten to one he would have figured in a steel breastplate and an iron
head-piece before the week was over. I was unable to hear more of the
conversation, notwithstanding my great wish to do so, as a movement of
those next the door implied that a large instalment of the guests who
had not supp