turning
to Lord Colambre, 'you see what kind of a man this is: now is it not
difficult for me to bear patiently to see him ill-treated?'

'Not only difficult, but impossible, I should think, madam,' said Lord
Colambre; 'I know, even I, who am a stranger, cannot help feeling for
both of you, as you must see I do.'

'And half the world, who don't know him,' continued Mrs. Burke, 'when
they hear that Lord Clonbrony's agency is taken from him, will think,
perhaps, that he is to blame.'

'No, madam,' said Lord Colambre; 'that you need not fear; Mr. Burke may
safely trust to his character; from what I have within these two days
seen and heard, I am convinced that such is the respect he has deserved
and acquired, that no blame can touch him.'

'Sir, I thank you,' said Mrs. Burke, the tears coming into her eyes;
'you can judge--you do him justice; but there are so many who don't know
him, and who will decide without knowing any of the facts.'

'That, my dear, happens about everything to everybody,' said Mr. Burke;
'but we must have patience; time sets all judgments right, sooner or
later.'

'But the sooner the better,' said Mrs. Burke. 'Mr. Evans, I hope you
will be so kind, if ever you hear this business talked of--'

'Mr. Evans lives in Wales, my dear.'

But he is travelling through Ireland, my dear, and he said he should
return to Dublin, and, you know, there he certainly will hear it talked
of; and I hope he will do me the favour to state what he has seen and
knows to be the truth.'

'Be assured that I will do Mr. Burke justice--as far as it is in my
power,' said Lord Colambre, restraining himself much, that he might not
say more than became his assumed character. He took leave of this worthy
family that night, and, early the next morning, departed.

'Ah!' thought he, as he drove away from this well-regulated and
flourishing place, 'how happy I might be, settled here with such a wife
as--her of whom I must think no more.'

He pursued his way to Clonbrony, his father's other estate, which was at
a considerable distance from Colambre; he was resolved to know what
kind of agent Mr. Nicholas Garraghty might be, who was to supersede Mr.
Burke, and by power of attorney to be immediately entitled to receive
and manage the Colambre as well as the Clonbrony estate.

CHAPTER X

Towards the evening of the second day's journey, the driver of Lord
Colambre's hackney chaise stopped, and jumping off the wooden bar, on