than, as I desired, with frank
enjoyment of them. So, pausing a moment to account for such a manner,
I recollected--and the recollection covered me with confusion--that I
must have been, to say the least, as rough a comrade as any one need
wish to meet with under a hedge; for, purposing to leave Ireland in
another month for Germany, I had, during the last week, allowed my
beard to grow all round--putting off from day to day the forming of
the moustache, to which I meant to reduce it--and so had my face, at
no time very smooth, now covered from ear to ear with a stubble, long,
strong, and black as a shoe-brush. My broad-brimmed hat was battered
and dinted into strangely uncouth cavities, and the leaf hung flapping
over my brows like a broken umbrella; my jacket was tinselled indeed,
but it was with the ancient scales of trout; my leathern overalls were
black-glazed and greasy; and my whole equipment bore, I must confess,
the evident signs of an unexceptionable rascal.

Indignant at my unworthy appearance, I put myself upon my mettle; and
after drawing my fair companion from her intrenchments of shyness and
hauteur, succeeded in engaging her in the fair field of a
conversation the most animated and interesting, in which it was ever
my good fortune and credit to bear a part. She had at first, indeed,
when I began by running a parallel between our positions, explained
the circumstances of her being driven thither alone, in a manner so
general, and with such evident painfulness of hesitation, that I had
hardly expected a few slow commonplaces at the most. Such wit, then,
and vivacity, tempered with such dignified discretion, as she evinced,
when I turned the conversation from what I perceived to be perplexing,
were by their unexpectedness doubly delightful.

Time and the tempest swept on equally unheeded; topic induced topic,
smile challenged smile, and when at last, in obedience to her wishes,
I looked towards the north, to see whether the sky were clearing, I
only prayed that it might rain on till sunset, when I might accompany
her to her home, which, to my surprise, I learned was within a few
miles, although I did not ascertain exactly where. My prayers were
likely enough to be fulfilled; the sky was still one rush of
rain--but, heaven and earth! the river had overflowed its banks above:
a broad sheet of water was sailing down the hollow behind; and there
we were, no human habitation within sight, in the midst of a tempe