good old
tenant, as I hear you were, should have been turned out of your farm.'

'Don't fret, it's no great matter, my lord,' said my father. 'I shall be
soon out of the way; but if you would be so kind to speak a word for
my boy here, and that I could afford, while the life is in me, bring my
other boy back out of banishment--'

'Then,' says my Lord Clonbrony, 'I'll give you and your sons three
lives, or thirty-one years, from this day, of your former farm. Return
to it when you please.' 'And,' added my Lord Colambre, 'the flaggers,
I hope, will be soon banished.' Oh, how could I thank him--not a word
could I proffer--but I know I clasped my two hands, and prayed for him
inwardly. And my father was dropping down on his knees, but the master
would not let him; and OBSARVED, that posture should only be for his
God. And, sure enough, in that posture, when he was out of sight, we did
pray for him that night, and will all our days.

But, before we quit his presence, he called me back, and bid me write
to my brother, and bring you back, if you've no objections, to your own
country.

So come, my dear Pat, and make no delay, for joy's not joy complAte
till you're in it--my father sends his blessing, and Peggy her love, The
family entirely is to settle for good in Ireland, and there was in the
castle yard last night a bonfire made by my lord's orders of the
ould yellow damask furniture, to plase my lady, my lord says. And the
drawing-room, the butler was telling me, is new hung; and the chairs
with velvet as white as snow, and shaded over with natural flowers, by
Miss Nugent. Oh! how I hope what I guess will come true, and I've rason
to believe it will, for I dreamt in my bed last night it did. But keep
yourself to yourself--that Miss Nugent (who is no more Miss Nugent, they
say, but Miss Reynolds, and has a new-found grandfather, and is a big
heiress, which she did not want in my eyes, nor in my young lord's),
I've a notion will be sometime, and maybe sooner than is expected, my
Lady Viscountess Colambre--so haste to the wedding. And there's another
thing: they say the rich ould grandfather's coming over;--and another
thing, Pat, you would not be out of the fashion--and you see it's
growing the fashion not to be an Absentee.--

Your loving brother,

LARRY BRADY.

End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Absentee, by Maria Edgeworth

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