Maddison, in the course of your life did

you never see an old fool?”

"A great many, sir," replied he; "but

None of your buts," said the solicitor; "I tell you I am not too old to learn to play the fool; and if I see cause, I can bring forward many examples of young heads on old shoulders-but sure you can take my word, when I repeat to you, that I am actually setting off to-morrow for France? and if I don't bring home new fashions, I go with the intention of bringing home a beautiful young

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Why, that would be worse than a dozen fits of the gout," interrupted Maddison; "no, I sincerely pray, not a young wife, for that would be sadly playing the fool indeed."

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O'Niel now laughed heartily, and at length said " Gout and asthma are no great recommendations, Maddison, to a young lady's favour-a wife!" laughing again, "och, by St. Patrick! I have just

as

as much occasion for a wife as a toad has for a silk petticoat!-no, no, Maddison! Shelah Dermot is an excellent nurse, and I have lived too many years a bachelor to give up my whims and fancies to a wife, though I wish sure I had taken courage and married thirty years ago, for then I was a stout good-looking fellow; what a comfort it would have been to have a darling of my own, to have rubbed my gouty feet, and settle my pillows, and roll me in flannels!-well, well, it is too late to think of these comforts now; but all young men ought to marry, and I wish there was a law to compel every bachelor of twenty to take a wife."

"It would be a most excellent law indeed, sir,” replied Maddison," if it would provide the means to support the children that might proceed from such marriages.”

O'Niel shook his head-"Right, Maddison-very right," said he; "I was only proposing to increase the population of the country, without considering the means for

its

its support the enclosing of commons, the pulling down small cottages, and throwing half-a-dozen farms into one, have done much mischief to the cause of matrimony and morality-but, tunder and fire! what am I preaching about these matters for, when I ought to be getting ready for my journey?"

"Are you serious, sir?" asked Maddison; "are you really going to France?"

"Serious! faith and I am! as sure as ever St. Patrick set his blessed ten toes on the green shores of Erin, so sure am I, Arthur O'Niel, going to Dieppe, to fetch back to her own country, and invest with her father's property, Miss Rosella Fitzallan."

. Maddison, still incredulous, asked "But are you sure you shall find the young lady at Dieppe?"

"Here is a letter," returned O'Niel, "written by the sweet creature's own lily white hand, giving a full account of her adventures by sea and by land-och!

what

what a clever, sensible little soul it is! her account of her sorrows and sufferings has drawn tears from my eyes, and I am not much given to such womanish weaknessfaith, now!" spreading the letter before Maddison," here is as well-worded a brief as was ever placed in a counsellor's hand, sure, and no jury in England-no, nor in Ireland neither, would fail to bring in a verdict of guilty against lady Clarisford. By the powers! if she only knew of this letter, and that I am going to France to take her sister's evidence, she would offer me a bribe of twenty, instead of ten thousand pounds, to stop proceedings. Fire and tunder! I never think of her wanting to bribe me to destroy the general's will, but my blood boils in my veins, when I remember that Arthur O'Niel, a gentleman of ancient Milesian family, was considered rogue enough to accept a bribe, and join in a diabolical scheme to defraud a father-less and motherless child out of her rightmy stomach swells against the affront, but

faith, now, as a Christian I ought to forgive her ladyship for insulting and wanting me to be a partner in her wickedness; and so I would sure, if I could only see her punished for her barbarous conduct to the darling creature, her sister!"

Though etiquette, and the restricting forms of decency, constrained the countess of Clarisford to live retired during the first day of widowhood, yet so far from grieving for the death of the earl, she rejoiced at being again at liberty. Love had no share in her marriage; she had given her hand to the earl, a man many years her senior, from motives of ambition; he had obligingly released her from disagreeable shackles, and she looked forward, with rapturous anticipation, to the moment when she should burst upon the world in a blaze of beauty and splendour.

Till the funeral obsequies of the earl were performed, the countess of Clarisford had quitted her house in Cavendishsquare, and accepted apartments with her friend,