ss.

"I'm quite ready," said Cashel, who had quietly set down in his own mind
that the ladies of the Kennyfeck family were a kind of female fac-simile
of the stiff-looking old attorney, and, therefore, felt very few qualms
on the subject of his disordered and slovenly appearance.

Scarcely had Cashel entered the drawing-room than he found his hand
grasped in Mr. Kennyfeck's, when, with a most dulcet acccent, he said,--

"I knew you 'd forgive me,--I told Mrs. Kennyfeck you'd excuse me
for not joining you at dinner; but I was really so fatigued. Mrs.
Kennyfeck--Mr. Cashel. My daughter, Mr. Cashel. My daughter Olivia.
Well, now, have you dined heartily?--I hope my friends here took care of
you."

"I thank you. I never dined better,--only sorry not to, have had your
company. We have our apologies to make, Mrs. Kennyfeck, for not being
earlier; but, of course, you 've heard that we did our very utmost."

"Oh, yes, yes! I explained everything," interrupted Kennyfeck, most
eager to stop a possible exposure. "Mrs. Kennyfeck knows it all."

Although Cashel's manner and address were of a kind to subject him to
the most severe criticism of the ladies of the Kennyfeck family, they
evinced the most laudable spirit in their hospitable and even cordial
reception of him, Mrs. Kennyfeck making room for him to sit on the sofa
beside her,--a post of honor that even the Castle aides-de-camp only
enjoyed by great favor; while the daughters listened with an attention
as flattering to _him_ as it was galling to the other two guests.

Mr. Softly, however, resigned himself to this neglect as to a passing
cloud of forgetfulness, and betook himself to the columns of the
"Morning Post" for consolation, occasionally glancing over the margin
to watch the laughing group around the fire. As for Jones; Mr. Kennyfeck
had withdrawn with that gentleman into a window, where the tactics of
some bill in equity engaged their attention,--manifestly, however, to
the young barrister's discontent, as his frequent stolen looks towards
the ladies evidenced.

It was the first time that the Kennyfecks had ever deigned to listen
to any one whose claims to a hearing rested on higher grounds than
the light gossip and small-talk of the capital, the small fashionable
chit-chat of a provincial city, and which bears the same resemblance to
the table-talk of the greater metropolis as do larks to ortolans, when
disguised in the same kind of sauce; only those accustom