at home, had walked back again to inform his mistress where I was, and,
no doubt, to tell her, in his own fashion, of all the events that had
happened at Castle Brady. In spite of my precautions to secrecy, then,
I half suspected that my mother knew all, from the manner in which she
embraced me on my arrival, and received our guest, Captain Fagan. The
poor soul looked a little anxious and flushed, and every now and then
gazed very hard in the Captain's face; but she said not a word about the
quarrel, for she had a noble spirit, and would as lief have seen anyone
of her kindred hanged as shirking from the field of honour. What has
become of those gallant feelings nowadays? Sixty years ago a man was a
MAN, in old Ireland, and the sword that was worn by his side was at the
service of any gentleman's gizzard, upon the slightest difference. But
the good old times and usages are fast fading away. One scarcely every
hears of a fair meeting now, and the use of those cowardly pistols, in
place of the honourable and manly weapon of gentlemen, has introduced
a deal of knavery into the practice of duelling, that cannot be
sufficiently deplored.

When I arrived at home I felt that I was a man in earnest, and welcoming
Captain Fagan to Barryville, and introducing him to my mother, in a
majestic and dignified way, said the Captain must be thirsty after his
walk, and called upon Tim to bring up a bottle of the yellow-sealed
Bordeaux, and cakes and glasses, immediately.

Tim looked at the mistress in great wonderment: and the fact is, that
six hours previous I would as soon have thought of burning the house
down as calling for a bottle of claret on my own account; but I felt I
was a man now, and had a right to command; and my mother felt this too,
for she turned to the fellow and said, sharply, 'Don't you hear, you
rascal, what YOUR MASTER says! Go, get the wine, and the cakes and
glasses, directly.' Then (for you may be sure she did not give Tim the
keys of our little cellar) she went and got the liquor herself; and Tim
brought it in, on the silver tray, in due form. My dear mother poured
out the wine, and drank the Captain welcome; but I observed her hand
shook very much as she performed this courteous duty, and the bottle
went clink, clink, against the glass. When she had tasted her glass,
she said she had a headache, and would go to bed; and so I asked her
blessing, as becomes a dutiful son--(the modern BLOODS have given up the
res