d, if it wasn't
that, by deep study and minute attention, I have at length got some
insight into the weak parts of his nature, I frankly confess I couldn't
endure it much longer."

"And, pray, what may these amiable traits be?"

"You will scarcely guess"

"Love of money, perhaps?"

"No."

"Attachment to your family, then?"

"Not that either."

"I give it up."

"Well, the truth is, Corny is a most pious Catholic. The Church has
unbounded influence and control over all his actions. Secondly, he is a
devout believer in ghosts, particularly my grandfather's, which, I must
confess, I have personated two or three times myself, when his temper
had nearly tortured me into a brain fever; so that between purgatory and
apparitions, fears here and hereafter, I keep him pretty busy. There's a
friend of mine, a priest, one Father Tom Loftus----"

"I've heard that name before, somewhere."

"Scarcely, I think; I'm not aware that he was ever in England; but he's
a glorious fellow; I'll make you known to him, one of these days; and
when you have seen a little more of Ireland, I am certain you'll like
him. But I'm forgetting; it must be late; we have a field-day, you know,
in the Park."

"What am I to do for a mount? I've brought no horses with me."

"Oh, I've arranged all that. See, there are the nags already. That dark
chesnut I destine for you; and, come along, we have no time to lose;
there go the carriages, and here comes our worthy colleague and fellow
aide-de-camp. Do you know him?"

"Who is it, pray?"

"Lord Dudley de Vere, the most confounded puppy, and the emptiest ass--
But here he is."

"De Vere, my friend Mr. Hinton--one of ours."

His Lordship raised his delicate-looking eyebrows as high as he was
able, letting fall his glass at the same moment from the corner of his
eye; and while he adjusted his stock at the glass, lisped out,

"Ah--yes--very happy. In the Guards, I think. Know Douglas, don't you?"

"Yes, very slightly."

"When did you come--to-day?"

"No; last night."

"Must have got a buffeting; blew very fresh. You don't happen to know
the odds on the Oaks?"

"Hecate, they say, is falling. I rather heard a good account of the
mare."

"Indeed," said he, while his cold, inanimate features brightened up with
a momentary flush of excitement. "Take you five to two, or give you the
odds, you don't name the winner on the double event."

A look from O'Grady decided me at once on declining the p