ord Kilcullen was forced by his father into a general conversation
with his guests.

In the evening there was music and singing. The Miss O'Joscelyns, and
Miss Fitzgeralds, and Mr Hill, performed: even Mat Tierney condescended
to amuse the company by singing the "Coronation", first begging the
bishop to excuse the peculiar allusions to the "_clargy_", contained
in one of the verses; and then Fanny was asked to sing. She had again
become silent, dull, and unhappy, was brooding over her miseries and
disappointments, and she declined. Lord Kilcullen was behind her chair,
and when they pressed her, he whispered to her, "Don't sing for them,
Fanny; it's a shame that they should tease you at such a time; I wonder
how my mother can have been so thoughtless."

Fanny persisted in declining to sing--and Lord Kilcullen again sat
down beside her. "Don't trouble yourself about them, Fanny," said he,
"they're just fit to sing to each other; it's very good work for them."

"I should think it very good work, as you call it, for myself, too,
another time; only I'm hardly in singing humour at present, and,
therefore, obliged to you for your assistance and protection."

"Your most devoted knight as long as this fearful invasion lasts!--your
Amadis de Gaul--your Bertrand du Guesclin [45]! And no paladin of old
ever attempted to defend a damsel from more formidable foes."

[FOOTNOTE 45: Amadis . . . du Guesclin--mediaeval heroes. Amadis
de Gaul was the title hero of a 14th century
romantic novel, probably first written in Spanish,
which was popular throughout Europe. Bertrand du
Guesclin was a historical figure, a fourteenth
century French soldier and Marshall of France.]

"Indeed, Adolphus, I don't think them so formidable. Many of them are
my own friends."

"Is Mrs Ellison your own friend?--or Mrs Moore?"

"Not exactly those two, in particular."

"Who then? Is it Miss Judith O'Joscelyn? or is the Reverend Mr Hill one
of those to whom you give that sweetest of all names?"

"Yes; to both of them. It was only this morning I had a long
_tete-a-tete_--"

"What, with Mr Hill?"

"No, not with Mr Hill though it wouldn't be the first even with him,
but with Judith O'Joscelyn. I lent her a pattern for worsted work."

"And does that make her your friend? Do you give your friendship so
easily?"

"You forget that I've known her for yea