amily
friend is supposed to stick to one from generation to generation.

On his arrival at Castle Richmond he was taken in to Sir Thomas
before dinner. "You find me but in a poor state," said Sir Thomas,
shaking in his fear of what was before him, as the poor wretch does
before an iron-wristed dentist who is about to operate. "You will
be better soon," Mr. Prendergast had said, as a man always does say
under such circumstances. What other remark was possible to him?
"Sir Thomas thinks that he had better not trouble you with business
to-night," said Lady Fitzgerald. To this also Mr. Prendergast
agreed willingly. "We shall both of us be fresher to-morrow, after
breakfast," he remarked, as if any time made any difference to
him,--as though he were not always fresh, and ready for any work that
might turn up.

That evening was not passed very pleasantly by the family at Castle
Richmond. To all of them Mr. Prendergast was absolutely a stranger,
and was hardly the man to ingratiate himself with strangers at the
first interview. And then, too, they were all somewhat afraid of
him. He had come down thither on some business which was to them
altogether mysterious, and, as far as they knew, he, and he alone,
was to be intrusted with the mystery. He of course said nothing to
them on the subject, but he looked in their eyes as though he were
conscious of being replete with secret importance; and on this very
account they were afraid of him. And then poor Lady Fitzgerald,
though she bore up against the weight of her misery better than did
her husband, was herself very wretched. She could not bring herself
to believe that all this would end in nothing; that Mr. Prendergast
would put everything right, and that after his departure they would
go on as happily as ever. This was the doctrine of the younger part
of the family, who would not think that anything was radically wrong.
But Lady Fitzgerald had always at her heart the memory of her early
marriage troubles, and she feared greatly, though she feared she knew
not what.

Herbert Fitzgerald and Aunt Letty did endeavour to keep up some
conversation with Mr. Prendergast; and the Irish famine was,
of course, the subject. But this did not go on pleasantly. Mr.
Prendergast was desirous of information; but the statements which
were made to him one moment by young Fitzgerald were contradicted in
the next by his aunt. He would declare that the better educated of
the Roman Catholics were p