o his son; and, as worldly wisdom,
it was not so bad; and, certainly, when a lad is cast adrift in the
world, the two best things you can bestow on him are a little worldly
wisdom and a little money, for without the former, the latter and he
will soon part company.

The next day they set off for Dublin, Patrick's head being in a confused
jumble of primitive good feeling, Judith McCrae, his father's advice,
and visions of future greatness. He was fitted out, introduced to the
officers, and then his father left him his blessing and his own way to
make in the world. In a fortnight the regiment was complete, and they
were shipped to Liverpool, and from Liverpool to Maidstone, where, being
all newly raised men, they were to remain for a time to be disciplined.
Before the year had expired, Patrick had followed his father's advice,
and exchanged, receiving a difference, with an ensign of a regiment
going on foreign service. He was sent to the West Indies: but the
seasons were healthy, and he returned home an ensign. He volunteered
abroad again after five years, and gained his lieutenant's commission,
from a death vacancy, without purchase.

After a fifteen years' hard service, the desired Captain's commission
came at last, and O'Donahue, having been so unsuccessful in his military
career, retired upon half-pay, determined, if possible, to offer his
handsome person in exchange for competence. But, during the fifteen
years which had passed away, a great change had come over the ingenuous
and unsophisticated Patrick O'Donahue; he had mixed so long with a
selfish and heartless world, that his primitive feelings had gradually
worn away. Judith had, indeed, never been forgotten; but she was now at
rest, for, by mistake, Patrick had been returned dead of the yellow
fever, and at the intelligence she had drooped like a severed snowdrop,
and died. The only tie strong enough to induce him to return to Ireland
was therefore broken, his father's worldly advice had not been
forgotten, and O'Donahue considered the world as his oyster. Expensive
in his habits and ideas, longing for competence, while he vegetated on
half-pay, he was now looking out for a matrimonial speculation. His
generosity and his courage remained with him--two virtues not to be
driven out of an Irishman--but his other good qualities lay in abeyance;
and yet his better feelings were by no means extinguished; they were
dormant, but by favourable circumstances wer