, my dear Mrs. Rooney,' said I: 'I will take it as the
greatest possible favour----'

'Ah,' said Mrs..Paul, throwing up her eyes in the most languishing
ecstasy--'ah, you have a soul, I know you have!'

Protesting that I had strong reasons to believe so, I renewed my
entreaty.

'Yes,' said she, musing, and in a Siddons tone of soliloquy, 'yes, the
poet is right--

"Music hath charms to _smooth_ the savage _beast_."

But I really can't sing the melodies--they are too much for me. The
allusion to former times, when King O'Toole and the rest of the royal
family---- Ah, you are aware, I believe, that family reasons----'

Here she pressed her embroidered handkerchief to her eyes with one hand,
while she pressed mine convulsively with the other.

'Yes, yes,' said I hurriedly, while a strong temptation to laugh
outright seized me; 'I have heard that your descent----'

'Yes, my dear; if it wasn't for the Danes, and the cruel battle of the
Boyne, there's no saying where I might not be seated now.'

She leaned on the piano as she spoke, and seemed overpowered with
sorrow. At this instant the door opened, and the judge made his
appearance.

'A thousand pardons for the indiscretion,' said he, stepping back as he
saw me sitting with the lady's hand in mine. I sprang up, confused and
ashamed, and rushing past him hurried downstairs.

I knew how soon my adventure, for such it would grow into, would be the
standing jest of the bar mess; and not feeling disposed to be present at
their mirth, I ordered a chaise, and before half an hour elapsed was on
my road to Dublin.

CHAPTER XLV. THE RETURN

We never experience to the full how far sorrow has made its inroad upon
us until we come back, after absence, to the places where we have once
been happy, and find them lone and tenantless. While we recognise each
old familiar object, we see no longer those who gave them all their
value in our eyes; every inanimate thing about speaks to our senses,
but where are they who were wont to speak to our hearts? The solitary
chamber is then, indeed, but the body of all our pleasure, from which
the soul has departed for ever.

These feelings were mine as I paced the old well-worn stairs, and
entered my quarters in the Castle. No more I heard the merry laugh of my
friend O'Grady, nor his quick step upon the stair. The life, the stir,
the bustle of the place itself seemed to have all fled; the court echoed
only to the measured tread o