get upon his feet
very frequently, either in asking a question or in endeavouring to
animadvert on the answer given, there was something of a tussle
between him and the authority in the chair. It did not take much
above a week to make the Speaker thoroughly tired of this new member,
and threats were used towards him of a nature which his joint
Milesian and American nature could not stand. He was told of dreadful
things which could be done to him. Though as yet he could not be
turned out of the House, for the state of the young session had not
as yet admitted of that new mode of torture, still, he could be
named. "Let him name me. My name is Mr. O'Mahony." And Mr. O'Mahony
was not a man who could be happy when he was quarrelling with all
around him. He was soon worked into a violent passion, in which he
made himself ridiculous, but when he had subsided, and the storm
was past, he knew he had misbehaved, and was unhappy. And, as he
was thoroughly honest, he could not be got to obey his leaders in
everything. He wanted to abolish the Irish landlords, but he was
desirous of abolishing them after some special plan of his own, and
could hardly be got to work efficiently in harness together with
others.

"Don't you think your father is making an ass of himself,--just a
little, you know?"

This was said by Lord Castlewell to Rachel when the session was not
yet a fortnight old, and made Rachel very unhappy. She did think that
her father was making an ass of himself, but she did not like to be
told of it. And much as she liked music herself, dear as was her own
profession to her, still she felt that, to be a Member of Parliament,
and to have achieved the power of making speeches there, was better
than to run after opera singers. She loved the man who was going to
marry her very well,--or rather, she intended to do so.

He was not to her "Love's young dream." But she intended that his
lordship should become love's old reality. She felt that this would
not become the case, if love's old reality were to tell her often
that her father was an ass. Lord Castlewell's father was, she
thought, making an ass of himself. She heard on different sides that
he was a foolish, pompous old peer, who could hardly say bo to a
goose; but it would not, she thought, become her to tell her future
husband her own opinion on that matter. She saw no reason why he
should be less reticent in his opinion as to her father. Of course he
was older, and pe