el contrast to the pampered existence led by
the dogs at the castle. She had none of Strap's veneration for the
epithet of gentleman. Eliza owned to a "sneaking kindness for people of
quality." But Mary cared only for a man's intrinsic merit. His rank could
not cover his faults. Therefore, with the misery and destitution of so
many men and women staring her in the face, the amusements and
occupations of the few within Lady Kingsborough's household continually
grated upon her finer instincts.

In the winter of 1788 the family went to Dublin, and Mary accompanied
them. She liked the society of the capital no better than she had that of
the country. She, however, occasionally shared in its frivolities, her
relations to Lady Kingsborough obliging her to do this. She was still
young enough to possess the capacity for enjoyment, though her many
hardships and sorrows had made her think this impossible, and she was
sometimes carried away by the gayety around her. But, as thorough a hater
of shams as Carlyle, she was disgusted with herself once the passing
excitement was over. From Dublin she wrote to Everina giving her a
description of a mask to which she had gone, and of which she had
evidently been a conspicuous feature:--

DUBLIN, March 14, 1788.

... I am very weak to-day, but I can account for it. The day before
yesterday there was a masquerade; in the course of conversation
some time before, I happened to wish to go to it. Lady K. offered
me two tickets for myself and Miss Delane to accompany me. I
refused them on account of the expense of dressing properly. She
then, to obviate that objection, lent me a black domino. I was out
of spirits, and thought of another excuse; but she proposed to take
me and Betty Delane to the houses of several people of fashion who
saw masks. We went to a great number, and were a tolerable, nay, a
much-admired, group. Lady K. went in a domino with a smart
cockade; Miss Moore dressed in the habit of one of the females of
the new discovered islands; Betty D. as a forsaken shepherdess; and
your sister Mary in a black domino. As it was taken for granted the
stranger who had just arrived could not speak the language, I was
to be her interpreter, which afforded me an ample field for satire.
I happened to be very melancholy in the morning, as I am almost
every morning, but at night my fever gives me false sp