charm to his character.
The ladies pronounced him "a love," and the men, in less polished, but
not less hearty, encomium, called him "a devilish good fellow for a
Frenchman."

The habits I have already alluded to, of each guest living exactly how
he pleased, gave a continual novelty to the company; sometimes two or
three new faces would appear at the dinner-table or in the drawing-room,
and conjecture was ever at work whether the last arrivals had been yet
seen, and who were they who presented themselves at table?

"You will meet two new guests to-day, Count," said the host one day,
as we entered the drawing-room before dinner: "a Spanish Bishop and his
niece,--a very charming person, and a widow of nineteen! They came over
to Ireland about some disputed question of property,--being originally
Irish by family,--and are now, I regret to say, about to return to Spain
in a few days. Hitherto a severe cold has confined the Bishop to his
chamber; and his niece, not being, I fancy, a proficient in any but her
native language, had not courage to face a miscellaneous party. They
will both, however, favor us to-day; and as you are the only one here
who can command the 'true Castilian tongue,' you will take the Countess
in to dinner."

I bowed my acknowledgments, not sorry to have the occasion of displaying
my Spanish and playing the agreeable to my fair countrywoman.

The drawing-room each day before dinner had no other light than that
afforded by a great fire of bog deal, which, although diffusing a rich
and ruddy glow over all who sat within the circle around it, left the
remainder of the apartment in comparative darkness; and few, except
those very intimate, were able to recognize each other in the obscurity.
Whether this was a whim of the host, or a pardonable artifice to make
the splendor of the well-lighted dinner-table more effective, on the
principle of orators, who begin at a whisper to create silence, I know
not, but we used to jest over the broken shins and upset spider tables
that each day announced the entrance of some guest less familiarized to
the geography of the apartment.

On this particular occasion the party was unusually large; possibly a
certain curiosity to see the new guests had added to the number, while
some of the neighboring families were also present. Various were the new
names announced; and at last came the Bishop, with the lady of the house
upon his arm, the young widow following with one of