, spoiling with damp.
'Then, isn't it a pity to see them? There's my lady, and all spoiling,'
said the widow.

Lord Colambre stopped before a portrait of Miss Nugent.--'Shamefully
damaged!' cried he. 'Pass on, or let me pass, if you PLASE,' said one of
the tenants; 'and don't be stopping the doorway.' 'I have business more
nor you with the agent,' said the surveyor; 'where is he?'

'In the PRESENCE-CHAMBER,' replied another; 'where should the viceroy be
but in the PRESENCE-CHAMBER?'

There was a full levee, and fine smell of greatcoats. 'Oh! would you
put your hats on the silk cushions?' said the widow to some men in the
doorway, who were throwing off their greasy hats on a damask sofa.--'Why
not? where else?' 'If the lady was in it, you wouldn't,' said she,
sighing.--'No, to be sure, I wouldn't; great news! would I make no
DIFFER in the presence of old Nick and my lady?' said he, in Irish.
'Have I no sense or manners, good woman, think ye?' added he, as he
shook the ink out of his pen on the Wilton carpet, when he had finished
signing his name to a paper on his knee. 'You may wait long before you
get to the speech of the great man,' said another, who was working his
way through numbers. They continued pushing forward, till they came
within sight of Mr. Nicholas Garraghty, seated in state; and a worse
countenance, or a more perfect picture of an insolent, petty tyrant in
office, Lord Colambre had never beheld.

We forbear all further detail of this levee. 'It's all the same!' as
Lord Colambre repeated to himself, on every fresh instance of roguery or
oppression to which he was witness; and, having completely made up his
mind on the subject, he sat down quietly in the background, waiting
till it should come to the widow's turn to be dealt with, for he was
now interested only to see how she would be treated. The room gradually
thinned; Mr. Dennis Garraghty came in, and sat down at the table, to
help his brother to count the heaps of gold.

'Oh, Mr. Dennis, I'm glad to see you as kind as your promise, meeting me
here,' said the widow O'Neill, walking up to him; 'I'm sure you'll speak
a good word for me; here's the LASES--who will I offer this to?' said
she, holding the GLOVE-MONEY and SEALING-MONEY,--'for I'm strange and
ashamed.'

'Oh, don't be ashamed--there's no strangeness in bringing money or
taking it,' said Mr. Nicholas Garraghty, holding out his hand. 'Is this
the proper compliment?'

'I hope so, sir; your