"She may soon become something more," said the dark man; "instead
of embarrassing your counsels, she may go far towards swaying and
controlling them. The energies that were once wasted in factious
struggles at home here, may combine to carry on a greater combat in
England; and it might even happen that your statesmen might look back
with envy to days of orange-and-green memory."

"She would gladly welcome the change you speak of." said the Secretary.

"I'm not so sure of that, sir; you have not already shown yourselves
so very tolerant when tried. It is but a few years ago, and your bar
rebelled at the thought of an Irishman being made Master of the Rolls in
England, and that Irishman, Plunkett."

"I must say," burst in the Attorney-General, fresh from his first
session in Parliament, and, more still, his first season in town, "this
is but a prejudice,--an unjust prejudice. I can assert for myself that
I never rose in the House without experiencing a degree of attention,--a
deference, in short--"

"Eminently the right of one whose opinions were so valuable," said the
Secretary, bowing blandly, and smiling.

"You did not lash them too often nor too much, Hutchard," said the dark
man. "If I remember aright, you rose once in the session, and that was
to move an adjournment."

"Ah, Lindley," said the other, good-humoredly, "you are an unforgiving
enemy." Then, turning to the Chief Secretary, he said: "He cannot pardon
my efforts, successful as they have been, to enable the Fellows of the
University to marry. He obtained his fellowship as a safe retirement,
and now discovers that his immunity is worth nothing."

"I beg pardon," said Lindley; "I have forgiven you long ago. It was from
your arguments in its favor the measure was so long resisted. You are
really blameless in the matter!"

The sharp give and take of these sallies--the fruit of those intimacies
which small localities produce--rather astonished the English officials,
and the Secretary and the Commissioner exchanged glances of significant
import; nor was this lost on the Chief Baron, who, to change the topic,
suddenly asked,--

"Who bought that estate--Kellett's Court, I think they call it--was sold
this morning?"

"I purchased it in trust," said Dunn, "for an English peer."

"Does he intend ever to reside there?"

"He talks of it, my Lord," said Dunn, "the way men talk of something
very meritorious that they mean to do--one day or other."

"It