uld slap a duke on the shoulder. If there is one thing more
dangerous than to refuse to lend him a sum of money when he asks for it,
it is to lend it to him; for he never pays, and never pardons a man to
whom he owes. "Walker refused to cash a bill for me," he had been heard
to say, "and I'll do for his wife when she comes out on the stage!" Mrs.
Walker and Sir George Thrum were in an agony about the Tomahawk; hence
the latter's invitation to Mr. Bludyer. Sir George was in a great tremor
about the Flowers of Fashion, hence his invitation to Mr. Squinny. Mr.
Squinny was introduced to Lord Roundtowers and Mr. Fitz-Urse as one of
the most delightful and talented of our young men of genius; and Fitz,
who believes everything anyone tells him, was quite pleased to have
the honour of sitting near the live editor of a paper. I have reason to
think that Mr. Squinny himself was no less delighted: I saw him giving
his card to Fitz-Urse at the end of the second course.

No particular attention was paid to Mr. Desmond Mulligan. Political
enthusiasm is his forte. He lives and writes in a rapture. He is,
of course, a member of an inn of court, and greatly addicted to
after-dinner speaking as a preparation for the bar, where as a young man
of genius he hopes one day to shine. He is almost the only man to whom
Bludyer is civil; for, if the latter will fight doggedly when there is
a necessity for so doing, the former fights like an Irishman, and has a
pleasure in it. He has been "on the ground" I don't know how many
times, and quitted his country on account of a quarrel with Government
regarding certain articles published by him in the Phoenix newspaper.
With the third bottle, he becomes overpoweringly great on the wrongs
of Ireland, and at that period generally volunteers a couple or more of
Irish melodies, selecting the most melancholy in the collection. At five
in the afternoon, you are sure to see him about the House of Commons,
and he knows the "Reform Club" (he calls it the Refawrum) as well as if
he were a member. It is curious for the contemplative mind to mark those
mysterious hangers-on of Irish members of Parliament--strange runners
and aides-de-camp which all the honourable gentlemen appear to possess.
Desmond, in his political capacity, is one of these, and besides his
calling as reporter to a newspaper, is "our well-informed correspondent"
of that famous Munster paper, the Green Flag of Skibbereen.

With Mr. Mulligan's qual