k their way through life as a man crosses a stream on
stepping-stones.'

'Maybe she does not like Mr. O'Shea, sir.'

'And do you think she likes the other man? or is it anything else than one
of those mercenary attachments that you young ladies understand better, far
better, than the most worldly-minded father or mother of us all?'

'Mr. Walpole has not, I believe, any fortune, sir. There is nothing very
dazzling in his position or his prospects.'

'No. Not amongst his own set, nor with his own people--he is small enough
there, I grant you; but when he come down to ours, Kitty, we think him a
grandee of Spain; and if he was married into the family, we'd get off all
his noble relations by heart, and soon start talking of our aunt, Lady
Such-a-one, and Lord Somebody else, that was our first-cousin, till our
neighbours would nearly die out of pure spite. Sitting down in one's
poverty, and thinking over one's grand relations, is for all the world like
Paddy eating his potatoes, and pointing at the red-herring--even the look
of what he dare not taste flavours his meal.'

'At least, sir, you have found an excuse for our conduct.'

'Because we are all snobs, Kitty; because there is not a bit of honesty or
manliness in our nature; and because our women, that need not be bargaining
or borrowing--neither pawnbrokers nor usurers--are just as vulgar-minded
as ourselves; and now that we have given twenty millions to get rid of
slavery, like to show how they can keep it up in the old country, just out
of defiance.'

'If you disapprove of Mr. Walpole, sir, I believe it is full time you
should say so.'

'I neither approve nor disapprove of him. I don't well know whether I
have any right to do either--I mean so far as to influence her choice. He
belongs to a sort of men I know as little about as I do of the Choctaw
Indians. They have lives and notions and ways all unlike ours. The world is
so civil to them that it prepares everything to their taste. If they want
to shoot, the birds are cooped up in a cover, and only let fly when they're
ready. When they fish, the salmon are kept prepared to be caught; and if
they make love, the young lady is just as ready to rise to the fly, and
as willing to be bagged as either. Thank God, my darling, with all our
barbarism, we have not come to that in Ireland.'

'Here comes Mr. Walpole now, sir; and if I read his face aright, he has
something of importance to say to you.' Kate had barely time