burst out laughing, and
proposed to him to be friends. We were reconciled for that time, and
the next, and the next; but there was no love lost between us, and his
hatred for me seemed to grow as he grew, which was apace.

I determined to endow my darling boy Bryan with a property, and to this
end cut down twelve thousand pounds' worth of timber on Lady Lyndon's
Yorkshire and Irish estates: at which proceeding Bullingdon's guardian,
Tiptoff, cried out, as usual, and swore I had no right to touch a
stick of the trees; but down they went; and I commissioned my mother to
repurchase the ancient lands of Ballybarry and Barryogue, which had once
formed part of the immense possessions of my house. These she bought
back with excellent prudence and extreme joy; for her heart was
gladdened at the idea that a son was born to my name, and with the
notion of my magnificent fortunes.

To say truth, I was rather afraid, now that I lived in a very different
sphere from that in which she was accustomed to move, lest she should
come to pay me a visit, and astonish my English friends by her bragging
and her brogue, her rouge and her old hoops and furbelows of the time
of George II.: in which she had figured advantageously in her youth, and
which she still fondly thought to be at the height of the fashion. So
I wrote to her, putting off her visit; begging her to visit us when
the left wing of the castle was finished, or the stables built, and so
forth. There was no need of such precaution. 'A hint's enough for me,
Redmond,' the old lady would reply. 'I am not coming to disturb you
among your great English friends with my old-fashioned Irish ways. It's
a blessing to me to think that my darling boy has attained the position
which I always knew was his due, and for which I pinched myself to
educate him. You must bring me the little Bryan, that his grandmother
may kiss him, one day. Present my respectful blessing to her Ladyship
his mamma. Tell her she has got a treasure in her husband, which she
couldn't have had had she taken a duke to marry her; and that the Barrys
and the Bradys, though without titles, have the best of blood in their
veins. I shall never rest until I see you Earl of Ballybarry, and my
grandson Lord Viscount Barryogue.'

How singular it was that the very same ideas should be passing in my
mother's mind and my own! The very title she had pitched upon had also
been selected (naturally enough) by me; and I don't mind confes