hat as fine, as great, glorious, and free, I ask you?'

"'Who is that fellow that's talking there, with a voice like Lablache?'
asked a big man at the door; and then, as the answer was whispered in
his ear, he said, 'Send him out here to me.'

"Out I went, and found myself face to face with O'Connell.

"'I want a man to stand for Drogheda to-morrow; the gentleman I
expected cannot arrive there possibly before three. Will you address the
electors, and speak till he comes? If he isn't there by half-past three,
you shall be returned!'

"'Done!' said I. And by five o'clock on the following evening Gorman
O'Shea was at the top of the poll and declared Member for Drogheda!
That was, I may say, the first lift I ever got from Fortune. May I
never!" exclaimed O'Shea, half angrily,--"may I never, if he's not
asleep--and snoring! These Saxons beat the world for stupidity."

The Member now suddenly bethought him that it would be a favorable
moment to read his telegram, and so he tore open the envelope, and held
it to the light. It was headed as usual, and addressed in full, showing
that no parsimony defrauded him of his full title. The body of the
despatch was, however, brief enough, and contained only one word,
"Bosh!" It was clear, bold, and unmistakably "Bosh!" Could insolence go
further than that? To send such a message a thousand miles, at the cost
of one pound fourteen and sixpence!

"What the deuce? you've nearly upset the table!" cried Heathcote,
waking suddenly up, as O'Shea with a passionate gesture had thrown one
of the decanters into the other's lap.

"I was asleep, like yourself, I suppose," said the Member, roughly. "I
must say, we are neither of us the very liveliest company."

"It was that yarn of yours about attacking monkeys with a poker, or some
stuff of that kind, set me off," yawned Heathcote, drearily. "I had not
felt the least sleepy till then."

"Here, let us fill our glasses, and drink to the jolly time that is
coming for us," said O'Shea, with all his native recklessness.

"With all my heart; but I wish I could guess from what quarter it's
coming," said Heathcote, despondingly.

If neither felt much disposed to converse, they each drank deeply; and
although scarcely more than a word or two would pass between them, they
sat thus, hour after hour, till it was long past midnight.

It was after a long silence between them that Heathcote said: "I never
tried so hard in my life to get drunk, without