omforts. When the poor man
thought of these things--and he did little else now but think of
them--bitterly, though generally in silence, he cursed him whom he
looked upon as his oppressor and incubus. It never occurred to him
that if Mr. Flannelly built the house he lived in, he should be paid
for it. He never reflected that he had lived to the extent of, and
above his precarious income, as if his house had been paid for; that,
instead of passing his existence in hating the Carrick tradesman,
he should have used his industry in finding the means to pay him.
He sometimes blamed his father, having an indefinite feeling that
he ought not to have permitted Flannelly to have anything to do
with Ballycloran, after building it; but himself he never blamed;
people never do; it is so much easier to blame others,--and so much
more comfortable. Mr. Macdermot thus regarded his creditor as a
vulgar, low-born blood-sucker, who, having by chicanery obtained an
unwarrantable hold over him, was determined, if possible, to crush
him. The builder, on the other hand, who had spent a long life of
constant industry, but doubtful honesty, in scraping up a decent
fortune, looked on his debtor as one who gave himself airs to which
his poverty did not entitle him; and was determined to make him feel
that though he could not be the father, he could be the master of a
"rale gintleman."

After the short conversation between father and son the breakfast
passed over in silence. The father finished his stirabout, and turned
round to the blazing turf, to find consolation there. Feemy descended
into the kitchen, to scold the girls, give out the dinner,--if there
was any to give out; and to do those offices, whatever they be, in
performing which all Irish ladies, bred, born, and living in moderate
country-houses, pass the first two hours after breakfast in the
kitchen. Thady took his rent-book and went into an outhouse, which
he complimented by the name of his office, at the door of which he
was joined by Pat Brady. Now Pat was an appendage, unfortunately
very necessary in Ireland to such an estate as Macdermot's; and his
business was not only to assist in collecting the rents, by taking
possession of the little crops, and driving the cows, or the pig; but
he was, moreover, expected to know who could, and who could not, make
out the money; to have obtained, and always have ready, that secret
knowledge of the affairs of the estate, which is thought to be