caught a
glimpse of the other insides; none of whom were known to me, except Colonel
M'Manus, that I met once in a boarding-house in Molcsworth Street. I did
not, at the time, think him a very agreeable companion; but when morning
broke, and we began to pay our respects to each other in the coach, I
leaned over, and said, 'I hope you're well, Colonel M'Manus,' just by way
of civility like. He didn't hear me at first; so that I said it again, a
little louder.

"I wish you saw the look he gave me; he drew himself up to the height of
his cotton umbrella, put his chin inside his cravat, pursed up his dry,
shrivelled lips, and with a voice he meant to be awful, replied:--

"'You appear to have the advantage of me.'

"'Upon my conscience, you're right,' said I, looking down at myself, and
then over at him, at which the other travellers burst out a laughing,--'I
think there's few will dispute that point.' When the laugh was over, I
resumed,--for I was determined not to let him off so easily. 'Sure I met
you at Mrs. Cayle's,' said I; 'and, by the same token, it was a Friday, I
remember it well,--may be you didn't pitch into the salt cod? I hope it
didn't disagree with you?'

"'I beg to repeat, sir, that you are under a mistake,' said he.

"'May be so, indeed,' said I. 'May be you're not Colonel M'Manus at all;
may be you wasn't in a passion for losing seven-and-sixpence at loo with
Mrs. Moriarty; may be you didn't break the lamp in the hall with your
umbrella, pretending you touched it with your head, and wasn't within three
foot of it; may be Counsellor Brady wasn't going to put you in the box of
the Foundling Hospital, if you wouldn't behave quietly in the streets--'

"Well, with this the others laughed so heartily, that I could not go on;
and the next stage the bold colonel got outside with the guard and never
came in till we reached Limerick. I'll never forget his face, as he got
down at Swinburne's Hotel. 'Good-by, Colonel,' said I; but he wouldn't take
the least notice of my politeness, but with a frown of utter defiance, he
turned on his heel and walked away.

"'I haven't done with you yet,' says I; and, faith, I kept my word.

"I hadn't gone ten yards down the street, when I met my old friend Darby
O'Grady.

"'Shaugh, my boy,' says he,--he called me that way for shortness,--'dine
with me to-day at Mosey's; a green goose and gooseberries; six to a
minute.'

"'Who have you?' says I.

"'Tom Keane and the Wall