g Goggy a beating, and she _was_ a little cantankerous cat and a
dirty tell-tale, as Goggy said. Amongst the ladies and Furlong the
breakfast went forward with coldness and constraint, and all were glad
when it was nearly over. At this period, Mrs. O'Grady half filled a
large bowl from the tea-urn, and then added to it some weak tea, and
Miss O'Grady collected all the broken bread about the table on a plate.
Just then Furlong ventured to "twouble" Mrs. O'Grady for a _leetle_ more
tea, and before he handed her his cup he would have emptied the sediment
in the slop-basin, but by mistake he popped it into the large bowl of
_miserable_ Mrs. O'Grady had prepared. Furlong begged a thousand
pardons, but Mrs. O'Grady assured him it was of no consequence, _as it
was only for the tutor_!

[15] Mary.

O'Grady, having swallowed his breakfast as fast as possible, left the
room; the whole party soon followed, and on arriving in the
drawing-room, the young ladies became more agreeable when no longer
under the constraint of their ogre father. Furlong talked slip-slop
common-places with them; they spoke of the country and the weather, and
he of the city; they assured him that the dews were heavy in the
evening, and that the grass was _so_ green in that part of the country;
he obliged them with the interesting information, that the Liffy ran
through Dublin, but that the two sides of the city communicated by means
of bridges--that the houses were built of red brick generally, and that
the hall-doors were painted in imitation of mahogany; to which the young
ladies responded, "La, how odd!" and added, that in the country people
mostly painted their hall-doors green, to match the grass. Furlong
admitted the propriety of the proceeding, and said he liked uniformity.
The young ladies quite coincided in his opinion, declared they all were
so fond of uniformity, and added that one of their carriage horses was
blind. Furlong admitted the excellence of the observation, and said, in
a very soft voice, that Love was blind also.

"Exactly," said Miss O'Grady, "and that's the reason we call our horse
'Cupid'!"

"How clever!" replied Furlong.

"And the mare that goes in harness with him--she's an ugly creature, to
be sure, but we call her 'Venus.'"

"How dwoll!" said Furlong.

"That's for uniformity," said Miss O'Grady.

"How good!" was the rejoinder.

Mrs. O'Grady, who had left the room for a few minutes, now returned and
told Furlon