ffee, toast and muffins, ladies and
gentlemen, were all smoking-hot together, and the candles on the
mantel-piece trickling down rivulets of fat in the most sympathetic
manner, under the influence of the gentle sighing of a broken pane of
glass, which the head of an inquiring youth in the street had stove in,
while flattening his nose against it in the hope of getting a glimpse of
the company through the opening in the window-curtain.

At last, when the room could hold no more, the company were drafted off
to the dancing-room, which had only long deal forms placed against the
wall to rest the weary after the exertions of the jig. The aforesaid
forms, by-the-bye, were borrowed from the chapel; the old wigsby who had
the care of them for some time doubted the propriety of the sacred
property being put to such a profane use, until the widow's arguments
convinced him it was quite right, after she had given him a
tenpenny-piece. As the dancing-room could not boast of a lustre, the
deficiency was supplied by tin sconces hung against the wall; for ormulu
branches are not expected to be plenty in the provinces. But let the
widow be heard for herself, as she bustled through her guests and caught
a critical glance at her arrangements: "What's that you're faulting
now?--is it my deal seats without cushions? Ah! you're a _lazy Larry_,
Bob Larkin. Cock you up with a cushion indeed! if you sit the less,
you'll dance the more. Ah, Matty, I see you're eyeing my tin sconces
there; well, sure they have them at the county ball, when candlesticks
are scarce, and what would you expect grander from a poor lone woman?
besides, we must have plenty of lights, or how could the beaux see the
girls?--though I see, Harry Cassidy, by your sly look, that _you_ think
they look as well in the dark--ah! you _divil_!" and she slapped his
shoulder as she ran past. "Ah! Mister Murphy, I'm delighted to see you;
what kept you so late?--the election to be sure. Well, we're beating
them, ain't we? Ah! the old country for ever. I hope Edward O'Connor
will be here. Come, begin the dance; there's the piper and the fiddler
in the corner as idle as a mile-stone without a number. Tom Durfy, don't
ask me to dance, for I'm engaged for the next four sets."

"Oh! but the first to me," said Tom.

"Ah! yis, Tom, I was; but then, you know, I couldn't refuse the stranger
from Dublin, and the English captain that will be there by-and-by; he's
a nice man, too, and long life