nd desired fires, and the house to be painted, and the new
building to go on as fast as possible, for the reception of him and his
lady before that time; with several words besides in the letter, which
we could not make out because, God bless him! he wrote in such a flurry.
My heart warmed to my new lady when I read this: I was almost afraid it
was too good news to be true; but the girls fell to scouring, and it was
well they did, for we soon saw his marriage in the paper, to a lady with
I don't know how many tens of thousand pounds to her fortune: then I
watched the post-office for his landing; and the news came to my son
of his and the bride being in Dublin, and on the way home to Castle
Rackrent. We had bonfires all over the country, expecting him down the
next day, and we had his coming of age still to celebrate, which he had
not time to do properly before he left the country; therefore, a great
ball was expected, and great doings upon his coming, as it were, fresh
to take possession of his ancestors' estate. I never shall forget the
day he came home; we had waited and waited all day long till eleven
o'clock at night, and I was thinking of sending the boy to lock the
gates, and giving them up for that night, when there came the carriages
thundering up to the great hall door. I got the first sight of the
bride; for when the carriage door opened, just as she had her foot on
the steps, I held the flam full in her face to light her [See GLOSSARY
19], at which she shut her eyes, but I had a full view of the rest of
her, and greatly shocked I was, for by that light she was little better
than a blackamoor, and seemed crippled; but that was only sitting so
long in the chariot.

'You're kindly welcome to Castle Rackrent, my lady,' says I
(recollecting who she was). 'Did your honour hear of the bonfires?'

His honour spoke never a word, nor so much as handed her up the
steps--he looked to me no more like himself than nothing at all; I know
I took him for the skeleton of his honour. I was not sure what to say
next to one or t'other, but seeing she was a stranger in a foreign
country, I thought it but right to speak cheerful to her; so I went back
again to the bonfires.

'My lady,' says I, as she crossed the hall, 'there would have been
fifty times as many; but for fear of the horses, and frightening your
ladyship, Jason and I forbid them, please your honour.'

With that she looked at me a little bewildered.

'Will I have