over Mount Music. Tradesmen, whose
suffering had been as long as their bills, began to turn, in what had
seemed like the sleep of exhaustion, and to talk about solicitors'
letters. Even Dr. Mangan had surprised and pained his friend, the
Major, by forgetting his wonted delicate reticence, and hinting, with
what struck Dick as singularly doubtful taste, at a repayment of those
loans that he had volunteered, offering as an excuse for doing so the
expenses consequent on his daughter's marriage. In addition to these
irritations, Major Talbot-Lowry had received what he justly considered
to be very annoying letters from a firm of Dublin solicitors, in
connection with various charges and mortgages on the Mount Music
property, which so they, informed him, had been "acquired" by them for
"a client," and were now to be called in. Alternatively, it was
suggested, an arrangement might be proposed, whereby the house and
demesne of Mount Music might be accepted in settlement of the sums in
question. The firm had been in communication with another creditor,
Dr. Mangan of Cluhir, and it was hoped that all Major Talbot-Lowry's
liabilities might be arranged for by the method they suggested.

Dick Talbot-Lowry received this announcement with the mixture of
indignation and contempt that might have been anticipated from an
old-established Pterodactyl, who has been warned that his hereditary
wallow in the Primeval Ooze is about to be wrested from him. Having
expressed these sentiments in suitable language, he said, lightly,
that Fairfax must raise as much on the property as would keep these
Dublin sharks quiet, and in the meantime he would shut up the house at
once and go to London. Temporary retrenchment was all that was
required. He would let the place. Some rich Englishman would jump at
the chance--

Major Dick had that optimism about his own affairs that is often
combined with a tranquil pessimism about the affairs of others. He
said that all he wanted was to get clear of the blood-sucking swarm of
hangers-on that infested the place. He wondered at his own folly in
having endured them for so long. And it would do Christian good to get
away. She had been looking rather pulled down--she missed the hunting,
of course. London would do her good--would be a change.

This, approximately, was what Dick said. What Lady Isabel said, being
an attenuated echo of Dick's observations, is negligible. What
Christian said was known only to Rinka, the