ll from the flood.
My father was then king of Connaught ----"

"And mislaid his crown, I'll be bound!" shouted the lieutenant. "Look
here, Dennis, you'll get no good partners if we're late, and if you
don't get a dance with your cousin's daughter, you'll miss a treat, I
can tell you. But dancing out here isn't trifled with as it is in
temperate climates, and cards are made up early."

By and by he shouted again,

"O'Brien!"

"Coming, your honour."

"I don't want you. But _is_ Mr. O'Moore ready?"

"He is, sorr, barring the waistcoat. _Take a fresh tie, Master Dennis.
The master 'll not be pleased to take ye out with one like that. Sure
it's haste that's the ruin of the white ties all along._ Did ye find the
young gentleman a pair of shoes, sorr?"

"Won't those I threw in fit you?" asked our host.

"I've got them. The least bit too large. A thousand thanks."

"Can you dance in them?"

"I'll try," replied Dennis, and judging by the sound, he did try then
and there, singing as he twirled,

"Bad luck to this marching,
Pipe-claying and starching,
How neat one must be to be killed by the French!"

But O'Brien's audible delight and the progress of the song were checked
by the lieutenant, who had dressed himself, and was now in the
sitting-room.

"O'Brien!"

"Sorr!"

"If Mr. O'Moore is not ready, I must go without him."

"He's ready and waiting, sorr," replied O'Brien.

"_Have ye got a pocket-handkerchief, Master Dennis, dear? There's the
flower for your coat. Ye'll be apt to give it away, maybe; let me use a
small pin. Did the master not find ye any gloves? Now av the squire saw
ye, its a proud man he'd be!_ Will I give the young gentleman one of
your hats, sorr?"

"Yes, of course. Be quick! So there you are at last, you young puppy.
Bless me! how like the squire you are."

The squire must have been amazingly handsome, I thought, as I gazed
admiringly at my comrade. Our staring made him shy, and as he blushed
and touched up the stephanotis in his buttonhole, the engineer changed
the subject by saying, "Talking of the squire, is it true, Dennis, what
Jack tells me about the twenty pounds? Did he really forget to put it
in?"

"As true as gospel," said Dennis, and taking up the tails of his coat he
waltzed round the room to the tune of

"They say some disaster
Befell the paymaster,
On my conscience, I think that the mone