e; 'you have seen a fair
share of these things for a man of your cloth. But where's the man
living--show him to me, I say--that has had my experience, either as
principal or second? Haven't I had my four men out in the same morning?'

'Why, I confess,' said I meekly, 'that does seem an extravagant
allowance.'

'Clear waste, downright profusion, _du luxe, mon cher_, nothing else,'
observed Father Tom.

Meanwhile, the Major rolled his eyes fearfully at me, and fidgeted in
his chair with impatience to be asked for his story; and as I myself had
some curiosity on the subject, I begged him to relate it.

'Tom, here, doesn't like a story at supper,' said the Major pompously;
for, perceiving our attitude of attention, he resolved on being a little
tyrannical before telling it.

The priest made immediate submission; and, slyly hinting that his
objection only lay against stories he had been hearing for the last
thirty years, said he could listen to the narration in question with
much pleasure.

'You shall have it, then,' said the Major, as he squared himself in his
chair, and thus began:--

'You have never been in Castle Connel, Hinton? Well, there is a wide
bleak line of country there, that stretches away to the westward, with
nothing but large round-backed mountains, low boggy swamps, with here
and there a miserable mud hovel, surrounded by, maybe, half an acre of
lumpers, or bad oats; a few small streams struggle through this on
their way to the Shannon, but they are brown and dirty as the soil they
traverse; and the very fish that swim in them are brown and smutty also.

'In the very heart of this wild country, I took it into my head to build
a house. A strange notion it was, for there was no neighbourhood and no
sporting; but, somehow, I had taken a dislike to mixed society some time
before that, and I found it convenient to live somewhat in retirement;
so that, if the partridges were not in abundance about me, neither were
the process-servers; and the truth was, I kept a much sharper look-out
for the sub-sheriff than I did for the snipe.

'Of course, as I was over head and ears in debt, my notion was to build
something very considerable and imposing; and, to be sure, I had a fine
portico, and a flight of steps leading up to it; and there were ten
windows in front, and a grand balustrade at the top; and 'faith, taking
it all in all, the building was so strong, the walls so thick, the
windows so narrow, and the st