right. Something is wrong with--that
gold button--yes, it looks better plain--the old gentleman--something's
in the wind--in the meantime I'll raise this window--or why should he
talk so lugubriously as he does? Upon my soul it was the most painful
interview I ever had. There is nothing on earth so stupid as the twaddle
of a sick old lord, especially when repenting for his sins. Repentance!
I can't at all understand that word; but I think the style of the thing
in the old fellow's hands was decidedly bad--inartistic, as they say,
and without taste; a man, at all events, should repent like a gentleman.
As far as I can guess at it, I think there ought to be considerable
elegance of manner in repentance--a kind of genteel ambiguity, that
should seem to puzzle the world as to whether you weep for or against
the sin; or perhaps repentance should say--as I suppose it often
does--'D--n me, this is no humbug; this, look you, is a grand process--I
know what I'm about; let the world look on; I have committed a great
many naughty things during my past life; I am now able to commit no
more; the power of doing so has abandoned me; and I call gods and men to
witness that I am very sorry for it.'--Now, that, in my opinion, would
be a good style of thing. Let me see, however, what the venerable earl
can mean. I am threatened, am I? Well, but nothing can affect the title;
of that I'm sure when the cue, 'exit old peer,' comes; then, as to the
property; why, he is one of the wealthiest men in the Irish peerage,
although he is an English one also. Then, what the deuce can his threats
mean? I don't know--perhaps he does not know himself; but, in any event,
and to guard against all accidents, I'll push on this marriage as fast
as possible; for, in case anything unexpected and disagreeable should
happen, it will be a good move to have something handsome--something
certain, to fall back upon."

Having dressed, he ordered his horse, and rode out to the Phoenix Park,
accompanied by his shadow, Norton, who had returned, and heard with much
mirth a full history of the interview, with a glowing description of the
stand which Dunroe made for himself.

CHAPTER XXX. A Courtship on Novel Principles.

Having stated that Sir Thomas Gourlay requested Dunroe to postpone an
interview with Lucy until her health should become reestablished, we
feel it necessary to take a glance at the kind of life the unfortunate
girl led from the day she made the