may be the lady still. Were you ever in France, ma'am?'

"'No,' says she, tossing up the stunner I spoke of, 'I never was in
Prance; but I was in Tipperary, if that would sarve him.'

"I shook my head, your honor, as much as to say--'It's no go this time.'

"'Ma'am,' says I, 'that's unfortunate--my masther, when he gets a loose
leg, will never marry any woman that has not been in France, and can
dance the fandango like a Frenchman.'

"'I am sorry for his taste,' says she, 'and for yours, too; but at
all events, you had better go up and tell him that I'll walk down the
opposite side of the street, and then he can see what he has lost, and
feel what France has cost him.'

"She then walked, sir, or rather sailed, down the other side of the
street, holdin' up her clothes behind, to show a pair of legs like
telescopes, with her head to it's full height, and one eye squintin' to
the hotel, like a crow lookin' into a marrow bone."

"Well," said his master, "but I don't see the object of all this."

"Why, the object, sir, is to show you that it's not so aisy to know
whether a person's young and handsome or not. You, sir, think yourself
both; and so did the old skeleton I'm spakin' of."

"I see your moral, Dandy," replied his master, laughing; "at all events,
make every possible inquiry, but, at the same time, in a quiet way. More
depends upon it than you can imagine. Not," he added, in a kind of
half soliloquy, "that I am acting in this affair from motives of a mere
personal nature; I am now only the representative of another's wishes,
and on that account, more than from any result affecting myself, do I
proceed in it."

"I wish I knew, sir," said Dandy, "what kind of a woman this Mrs. Norton
is; whether she's old or young, handsome or otherwise. At all events,
I think I may confine myself to them that's young and handsome. It's
always pleasanter, sir, and more agreeable to deal with a hands--"

"Confine yourself to truth, sir," replied his master, sharply;
"make prudent inquiries, and in doing so act like a man of sense and
discretion, and don't attempt to indulge in your buffoonery at my
expense. No woman named Norton can be the individual I want to find, who
has not lived for some years in France. That is a sufficient test; and
if you should come in the way of the woman I am seeking, who alone
can answer this description, I shall make it worth your while to have
succeeded."

CHAPTER XXXIII. The Priest asks