well; but, nevertheless, I think Irishmen had more good-luck
than the natives of the other two islands.'

"'In my geography book,' said Miss Dosy, 'it is put down only as one
island, consisting of England, capital London, on the Thames, in the
south; and Scotland, capital Edinburgh, on the Forth, in the north;
population'----

"'Gad! you are right,' said Brady--'perfectly right, Miss Macnamara. I
see you are quite a blue. But, as I was saying, it is scarce possible
for a good-looking young English officer to escape the French ladies.
And then I played rather deep--on the whole, however, I think, I may say
I won. Mortgageshire and I broke Frascati's one night--we won a hundred
thousand francs at rouge, and fifty-four thousand at roulette. You would
have thought the croupiers would have fainted; they tore their hair with
vexation. The money, however, soon went again--we could not keep it. As
for wine, you have it cheap there, and of a quality which you cannot get
in England. At Very's, for example, I drank chambertin--it is a kind
of claret--for three francs two sous a-bottle, which was, beyond all
comparison, far superior to what I drank, a couple of months ago, at the
Duke of Devonshire's, though his Grace prides himself on that very wine,
and sent to a particular binn for a favourite specimen, when I observed
to him I had tasted better in Paris. Out of politeness, I pretended to
approve of his Grace's choice; but I give you my honour--only I would
not wish it to reach his Grace's ears--it was not to be compared to what
I had at Very's for a moment.'

"So flowed on Brady for a couple of hours. The Tooleries, as he thought
proper to call them; the Louvre, with its pictures, the removal of which
he deplored as a matter of taste, assuring us that he had used all his
influence with the Emperor of Russia and the Duke of Wellington to
prevent it, but in vain; the Boulevards, the opera, the theatres, the
Champs Elysees, the Montagnes Russes--everything, in short, about
Paris, was depicted to the astonished mind of Miss Dosy. Then came
London--where he belonged to I do not know how many clubs--and cut a
most distinguished figure in the fashionable world. He was of the Prince
Regent's set, and assured us, on his honour, that there was never
anything so ill-founded as the stories afloat to the discredit of that
illustrious person. But on what happened at Carlton House, he felt
obliged to keep silence, the Prince being remarkab