more be heard of to trouble him,--but he
did not even contemplate their deaths, so sweet-minded was he. But
in the first fury of his love he had thought how nice it would be to
be left with his singing girl, and no one to trouble him. Now there
came across him an idea that something was due to the Marquis of
Beaulieu,--something, that is, to his own future position; and what
could he do with a singing girl for his wife who could not sing?

He was unhappy as he thought of it all, and would ever and again, as
he meditated, be stirred up to mild anger when he remembered that he
had been told that "the truth would suffer." He had intended, at any
rate, that his singing girl should be submissive and obedient while
in his hands. But here had been an outbreak of passion! And here
was this confounded O'Mahony ready to make a fool of himself at a
moment's notice before all the world. At that moment the door was
opened and Mr. O'Mahony was shown into the room.

"Oh! dear," exclaimed the lord, "how do you do, Mr. O'Mahony? I hope
I see you well."

"Pretty well. But upon my word, I don't know how to tell you what
I've got to say."

"Has anything gone wrong with Rachel?"

"Not with her illness,--which, however, does not seem to improve. The
poor girl! But you'll say she's gone mad."

"What do you mean by that?"

"I really hardly know how I ought to break it. You must have learned
by this time that Rachel is a girl determined to have her own way."

"Well; well; well!"

"And, upon my word, when I think of myself, I feel that I have
nothing to do but what she bids me."

"It's more than you do for the Speaker, Mr. O'Mahony."

"Yes, it is; I admit that. But Rachel, though she is inclined to
be tyrannical, is not such a downright positive old blue-bottle
nincompoop as that white-wigged king of kings. Rachel is bad; but
even you can't say that she is bad enough to be Speaker of the House
of Commons. My belief is, that he'll come to be locked up yet."

"We have all the highest opinion of him."

"It's because you like to be sat upon. You don't want to be allowed
to say bo to a goose. I have often heard in my own country--"

"But you call yourself an Irishman, Mr. O'Mahony."

"Never did so in my life. They called me so over there when they
wanted to return me to hold my tongue in that House of Torment; but
I guess it will puzzle the best Englishman going to find out whether
I'm an American or an Irishman. They did something