ill eight; by that time I have finished my
correspondence on business topics. I then take a cup of tea and a little
dry toast. This is my preparation for questions of politics, which
usually occupy me till eleven. From that hour till three I receive
deputations,--heads of companies, and such like. I then take my ride,
weather permitting, and usually contrive to call at the Lodge, till nigh
dinner-hour. If alone, my meal is a frugal one, and soon despatched;
and then begins the real work of the day. A short nap of twenty minutes
refreshes me, and I address myself with energy to my task. In these
quiet hours, undisturbed and uninterrupted,--for I admit none, not
one, at such seasons,--my mind is clear and unclouded, and I can work,
without a sense of fatigue, till past midnight; it has even happened
that morning has broke upon me without my being aware of it."

"No health, no constitution, could stand that, Dunn," said Lord
Glengariff, with a voice artfully modulated to imply deep interest.

"Men are mere relays on the road of life; when one sinks, wearied
or worn out, a fresh one comes forth ready to take his place in the
traces."

"That may be--that may be, in the mass of cases; but there are
exceptional men, Dunn,--men who--men, in fact, whose faculties have such
an adaptiveness to the age we live in--do you perceive my meaning?--men
of the situation, as the French say." Here his Lordship began to feel
that he was getting upon very ticklish ground, and by no means sure how
he was to get safely back again, when, with a violent plunge, he said,
"That fellow Washington was one of those men, Louis Napoleon is another,
and you--I don't hesitate to say it--you are also an instance of what I
mean."

Dunn's pale face flushed up as he muttered some broken words of
depreciating meaning.

"The circumstances, I am aware, are different. You have not to
revolutionize a country, but you have undertaken just as hard a task: to
remodel its social state,--to construct out of the ruined materials of
a bankrupt people the elements of national wealth and greatness. Let
no man tell me, sir, that this is not a bolder effort than the other.
Horse, foot, and dragoons, as poor Grattan used to say, won't aid
you here. To your own clear head and your own keen intellect must you
trust."

"My dear Lord," broke in Dunn, in a voice not devoid of emotion, "you
exaggerate both my labor and my capacity. I saw that the holders of
Irish property w