and his bright eye glanced from my
fair cousin to myself with a quick, meaning expression.

'Another time, General, will do quite as well, I say, Mr. Hinton, call
on me to-morrow morning about ten, will you? I have something to say to
you.'

I bowed deeply in reply, and he passed on.

'And let me see you after breakfast,' said Julia, in a half-whisper, as
she turned towards De Vere, who now came forward to claim her for the
waltz.

My father, too, mixed with the crowd, and I felt myself alone and a
stranger in what should have been my home. A kind of cold thrill came
over me as I thought how unlike was my welcome to what it would have
been in Ireland; for although I felt that in my father's manner towards
me there was no want of affection or kindness, yet somehow I missed the
exuberant warmth and ready cordiality I had latterly been used to, and
soon turned away, sad and disappointed, to seek my own room.

CHAPTER XLVIII. AN UNHAPPY DISCLOSURE

'What!' cried I, as I awoke the next morning, and looked with amazement
at the figure which waddled across the room with a hoot in either
hand--'what! not Corny Delany, surely?'

'Ugh! that same,' said he, with a cranky croak. 'I don't wonder ye don't
know me; hardship's telling on me every day.'

Now really, in vindication of my father's household, in which Sir Corny
had been domesticated for the last two months, I must observe that the
alteration in his appearance was not exactly such as to justify his
remark; on the contrary, he had grown fatter and more ruddy, and looked
in far better case than I had ever seen him. His face, however, most
perseveringly preserved its habitual sour and crabbed expression, rather
increased, than otherwise, by his improved condition.

'So, Corny, you are not comfortable here, I find?'

'Comfortable! The ways of this place would kill the Danes! Nothing but
ringing bells from morning till night; carriages drivin' like wind up
to the door, and bang, bang away at the rapper; then more ringing to let
them out again; and bells for breakfast and for luncheon and the hall
dinner; and then the sight of vitals that's wasted--meat and fish and
fowl and vegetables without end. Ugh! the Haythins, the Turks! eating
and drinking as if the world was all their own.'

'Well, apparently they take good care of you in that respect'

'Devil a bit of care; here it's every man for himself. But I'll give
warning on Saturday; sorrow one o' me 'll be ki