ere and there through the crowd. They came straight towards
where we were standing; and while a whispered murmur ran through the
room, the various persons around us drew back, leaving the duke
and myself completely isolated. Before his grace could recover his
concealment, Mrs. Rooney stood before him. The music suddenly ceased;
while the lady, disposing her petticoats as though the object were to
conceal all the company behind her, curtsied down to the very floor.

'Ah, your grace,' uttered in an accent of the most melting tenderness,
were the only words she could speak, as she bestowed a look of still
more speaking softness. 'Ah, did I ever hope to see the day when your
Highness would honour----'

'My dear madam,' said the duke, taking her hand with great courtesy,
'pray don't overwhelm me with obligations. A very natural, I hope a very
pardonable desire, to witness hospitality I have heard so much of, has
led me to intrude thus uninvited upon you. Will you allow me to make Mr.
Rooney's acquaintance?'

Mrs. Rooney moved gracefully to one side, waving her hand with the air
of a magician about to summons an attorney from the earth, when suddenly
a change came over his grace's features; and, as he covered his mouth
with his handkerchief, it was with the greatest difficulty he refrained
from an open burst of laughter. The figure before him was certainly not
calculated to suggest gravity.

Mr. Paul Rooney for the first time in his life found himself the host
of a viceroy, and, amid the fumes of his wine and the excitement of
the scene, entertained some very confused notion of certain ceremonies
observable on such occasions. He had read of curious observances in the
East, and strange forms of etiquette in China, and probably, had the
Khan of Tartary dropped in on the evening in question, his memory would
have supplied him with some hints for his reception; but, with the
representative of Britannic Majesty, before whom he was so completely
overpowered, he could not think of, nor decide upon anything. A very
misty impression flitted through his mind, that people occasionally
knelt before a Lord Lieutenant; but whether they did so at certain
moments, or as a general practice, for the life of him he could not
tell. While, therefore, the dread of omitting a customary etiquette
weighed with him on the one hand, the fear of ridicule actuated him on
the other; and thus he advanced into the presence with bent knees and a
supplica