Pardon me," he said, "dearest Maria, for two or three minutes I wish to
go to the library to make a memorandum. I will soon return."
He then left her, after a tender embrace, and retired, as he said,
to the library, where, smote to the heart by his admiration of her
affection and greatness of mind, he sat down, and whilst he reflected on
the destitution to which he had brought the granddaughter of an earl,
he wept bitterly for several minutes. It was from this peculiar state
of feeling that he was called upon to hear an account of the attempted
assassination, with which the reader is already acquainted.
Our friend, the Cannie Soogah, having taken the town of Lisnagola on
his way, in order to effect some sales with one of those general country
merchants on a somewhat small scale, that are to be found in almost
every country town, happened to be sitting in a small back-parlor, when
a certain conversation took place between Mr. Temple and Molony, the
proprietor of the establishment to which we have just alluded. He heard
the dialogue, we say, and saw that the mild and care-worn curate had
been, not rudely certainly, but respectfully, yet firmly, refused
further credit. By whatever spirit prompted it is not for us to say;
at all events he directed his footsteps to the glebe, and--but it is
unnecessary to continue the description, or rather to repeat it. The
reader is already aware of what occurred until the departure of Dr.
Turbot and the proctor.
Temple, having seen them depart, walked out for a little, in order to
compose his mind, and frame, if possible, some project for the relief of
his wife and children. In the meantime, our jolly pedlar, having caught
a glimpse of Mrs. Temple at the parlor window, presented himself, and
begged to know if she were inclined to make any purchases. She nodded
him a gentle and ladylike refusal, upon which he changed his ground,
and said, "Maybe, ma'am, if you're not disposed to buy, that you'd have
something you'd like to part wid. If you have, ma'am, bad cess to the
purtier purchaser you'd meet wid--shawls or trinkets, or anything that
way--I mane, ma'am," he added, "things that arn't of any use to you--an'
I'm the boy that will shell out the ready money, and over the value."
Mrs Temple had known little--indeed nothing--of the habits of such a
class as that to which our gay friend belonged; but be this as it may,
his last words struck her quickly and forcibly.
"Do you make purch
|