les azalees sont les fleurs
en peignoir_.'

Lady Sarah and Lady Jane, who had both overheard the remark, levelled
indignant glances at their father, scornful looks at Mrs. Barton, and,
to avoid further amatory allusions, Lady Sarah said:

'I do not think we shall soon have bread, much less flowers, to place on
our tables, if the Government do not step in and put down the revolution
that is going on in this country.'

Everyone, except the young girls, looked questioningly at each other,
and the mutuality of their interests on this point became at once
apparent.

'Ah, Lord Dungory! do you think we shall be able to collect our rents
this year? What reduction do you intend to give?'

Lord Dungory, who had no intention of showing his hand, said:

'The Land League has, I believe, advised the people to pay no more than
Griffith's valuation. I do not know if your lands are let very much
above it?'

'If you have not seen the _Evening Mail_ you have probably not heard of
the last terrible outrage,' said Captain Hibbert; and, amid a profound
silence, he continued: 'I do not know if anybody here is acquainted with
a Mr. Macnamara; he lives in Meath.'

'Oh! you don't say anything has happened to him? I knew his cousin,'
exclaimed Mrs. Gould.

Captain Hibbert looked round with his bland, good-looking stare, and, as
no nearer relative appeared to be present, he resumed his story:

'He was, it seems, sitting smoking after dinner, when suddenly two shots
were fired through the windows.'

At this moment a champagne-cork slipped through the butler's fingers and
went off with a bang.

'Oh, goodness me! what's that?' exclaimed Mrs. Gould; and, to pass off
their own fears, everyone was glad to laugh at the old lady. It was not
until Captain Hibbert told that Mr. Macnamara had been so severely
wounded that his life was despaired of, that the chewing faces became
grave again.

'And I hear that Macnamara had the foinest harses in Mathe,' said Mr.
Ryan; 'I very nearly sold him one last year at the harse show.'

Mr. Ryan was the laughing-stock of the country, and a list of the
grotesque sayings he was supposed, on different occasions, to have been
guilty of, was constantly in progress of development. He lived with his
cousin, Mr. Lynch, and, in conjunction, they farmed large tracts of
land. Mr. Ryan was short and thick; Mr. Lynch was taller and larger, and
a pair of mutton-chop whiskers made his bloated face look bigger still.