lf to Mrs. Mulready's, and drowned the feeling
of his ill success in whiskey.

Thady went home to his dinner or supper--rather glad that he had had
the interview, for the man's manner was not so insolent as he had
expected it would be; and he now felt tolerably confident that he
should not again be solicited to keep the unfortunate promise which
he had made.

His father, however, was still muttering over the misfortunes which
he was doomed to bear from the hands of his own son. Thady took all
the pains he could, and all the patience he could muster, to prove to
the old man that he was only desirous to do the best he could for him
and Feemy. He had even told him that he had absolutely quarrelled and
come to blows with the attorney, on the day of his visit; but it was
all in vain, and when he got himself to bed he was puzzled to think
whether Keegan and Ussher, or his father and Feemy, caused him most
trouble and unhappiness.

CHAPTER XIX.

THE RACES.

Although we have hitherto only seen Ussher as a guest at Ballycloran,
or figuring as a lion at Mary Brady's wedding, he was, nevertheless,
in the habit of frequenting much better society, and was not
unfrequently a guest at the houses of certain gentlemen in the
neighbourhood of Carrick-on-Shannon.

For Ussher could assume the manners of a gentleman when he chose, and
moreover, be a lively and agreeable companion; and this, perhaps,
quite as much as the attribute, made him somewhat of a favourite
among many of the surrounding gentry. He was, however, more intimate
at Brown Hall than at any other house; and he had now been asked over
there, to spend the few days previous to his final departure from
County Leitrim.

The establishment at Brown Hall consisted of Jonas Brown, the
father--an irritable, overbearing magistrate, a greedy landlord, and
an unprincipled father--and his two sons, who had both been brought
up to consider sport their only business; horses and dogs their only
care; grooms and trainers the only persons worthy of attention, and
the mysteries of the field and the stable the only pursuits which
were fit to be cultivated with industry or learnt with precision.
They could read, as was sufficiently testified by their intimate
knowledge of the information contained in "Nimrod upon Horses," and
the Veterinary Magazine; and the Clerk of the Course at the Curragh
could prove that they could write, by the many scrawls he had
received from them--ente