impossible for her to--to--"

"You'll see;--she'll marry Lord Ballindine. Had Harry lived, it might
have been different; but now she's got all her brother's money, she'll
think it a point of honour to marry her poor lover. Besides, her
staying this year in the country will be in his favour: she'll see no
one here--and she'll want something to think of. I understand he has
altogether thrown himself into Blake's hands--the keenest fellow in
Ireland, with as much mercy as a foxhound. He's a positive fool, is
Ballindine."

"I'm afraid he is--I'm afraid he is. And you may be sure I'm too fond
of Fanny--that is, I have too much regard for the trust reposed in me,
to allow her to throw herself away upon him."

"That's all very well; but what can you do?"

"Why, not allow him to see her; and I've another plan in my head for
her."

"Ah!--but the thing is to put the plan into _her_ head. I'd be sorry
to hear of a fine girl like Fanny Wyndham breaking her heart in a
half-ruined barrack in Connaught, without money to pay a schoolmaster
to teach her children to spell. But I've too many troubles of my own
to think of just at present, to care much about hers;" and the son and
heir got up, and stood with his back to the fire, and put his arms
under his coat-laps. "Upon my soul, my lord, I never was so hard up in
my life!"

Lord Cashel now prepared himself for action. The first shot was fired,
and he must go on with the battle.

"So I hear, Kilcullen; and yet, during the last four years, you've had
nearly double your allowance; and, before that, I paid every farthing
you owed. Within the last five years, you've had nearly forty thousand
pounds! Supposing you'd had younger brothers, Lord Kilcullen--supposing
that I had had six or eight sons instead of only one; what would you
have done? How then would you have paid your debts?"

"Fate having exempted me and your lordship from so severe a curse, I
have never turned my mind to reflect what I might have done under such
an infliction."

"Or, supposing I had chosen, myself, to indulge in those expensive
habits, which would have absorbed my income, and left me unable to do
more for you, than many other noblemen in my position do for their
sons--do you ever reflect how impossible it would then have been for me
to have helped you out of your difficulties?"

"I feel as truly grateful for your self-denial in this respect, as I do
in that of my non-begotten brethren."

Lord Cashel sa