ghted in his own
legs, is beginning to find that the former have become too strong, and
the latter too weak for either comfort or confidence.

And not these things only were troubling Dick. The common lot of Irish
landlords, and Pterodactyli, was upon him, and he was in process of
becoming extinct. It was his fate to see his income gradually
diminishing, being eaten away, as the sea eats away a bulwark-less
shore, by successive Acts of Parliament, and the machinery they
created, "for the purpose," as old Lord Ardmore was fond of
fulminating, of "pillaging loyal Peter in order to pamper rebel Paul!"
The opinion of very old, and intolerant, and indignant peers cannot
always be taken seriously, but it is surely permissible to feel a
regret for kindly, improvident Dick Talbot-Lowry, his youth and his
income departing together, and the civic powers that he had once
exercised, reft from him. Such power as he had had, he had exercised
honourably and with reverent confidence in precedent, and when he had
damned Parnell, and had asserted, in stentorian tones, that Cromwell
was the only man who had ever known how to govern Ireland, and he,
unfortunately, was now in hell; where, the Major would add, he was
probably better off, his contribution to constructive politics had
ended. He and his generation, reactionary almost to a man, instead of
attempting to ride the waves of the rising tide, subscribed their
guineas to construct breakwaters that were pathetic in their futility.
Gallant in resistance, barren in expedient, history may condemn the
folly of the. Old Guard of the "English Garrison," but it cannot deny,
even though it may deride, its fidelity.

CHAPTER XX

Lady Isabel Talbot-Lowry had invited what is concisely spoken of as
"people" to tea and tennis. The month was June, but the weather was
March, or at best, a sullen and overcast April. The purport of the
entertainment had been the exhibition, to rival amateurs, of the Mount
Music herbaceous borders, which, though "not looking quite their
best," were as nearly approximating to that never-achieved ideal, as
is ever the case with either gardens or children; but showers of chill
rain had marred the display, and the lawn tennis was fitful, and
subject to frequent interruption. In these circumstances, a fire of
turf and logs did not need apologies for its presence, and Lady Isabel
and her companion Heads of Households sat with it as their focal
point, and thought, a