nce is as though you had figured in the
pillory, and the very fact of its being in your possession is a blow of
a battering-ram to your credit for ever!'

[Illustration: 205]

'But why venture into it? If you must have it, let it be like the
pickled herrings and the paving-stones--so much of pure loss.'

'The fact is, Jack, it is generally passed off on a young hand, the
first time he raises money. He knows little of the town, less of its
secret practices, and not until he has furnished a hearty laugh to
all his acquaintances does he discover the blunder he has committed.
Besides, sometimes you're hard up for something to carry you about.

I remember once keeping it an entire winter, and as I painted Latitat a
good piebald, and had his legs whitewashed every morning, few recognised
him, except such as had paid for their acquaintance. After this account,
probably, you'll not like to drive with me; but as I am going to
Loughrea for the races, I 've determined to take the dennet down, and
try if I can't find a purchaser among the country gentlemen. And now
let's think of dinner. What do you say to a cutlet at the club, and
perhaps we shall strike out something there to finish our evening?'

CHAPTER XVII. AN EVENING IN TOWN

We dined at the club-house, and sat chatting over our wine till near
ten o'clock. The events of the morning were our principal topics; for
although I longed myself to turn the conversation to the Rooneys, I
was deterred from doing so by the fear of another outbreak of O'Grady's
mirth. Meanwhile the time rolled on, and rapidly too, for my companion,
with an earnestness of manner and a force of expression I little knew he
possessed, detailed to me many anecdotes of his own early career. From
these I could glean that while O'Grady suffered himself to be borne
along the current of dissipation and excess, yet in his heart he hated
the life he led, and, when a moment of reflection came, felt sorrow for
the past, and but little hope for the future.

'Yes, Jack,' said he, on concluding a narrative of continual family
misfortune, 'there would seem a destiny in things; and if we look about
us in the world we cannot fail to see that families, like individuals,
have their budding spring of youth and hope, their manhood of pride and
power, and their old age of feebleness and decay. As for myself, I am
about the last branch of an old tree, and all my endeavour has been, to
seem green and cheerful to the