cold, or hungry, it mattered not; my cheek might be
sunk with want or care, my rags might drip with rain, or freeze with
sleet,--he never noticed them; yet if the wind played too roughly with
his Arab's mane, or the silky tasselled tail, he saw it at once. If her
coat stirred with the chill breeze, he would pat and pet her. It was
evident enough which had the better existence.

If these thoughts chafed and angered me at first, at least they served
to animate and rouse my spirit. He who wants to rise in life must feel
the sharp spur of a wrong,--there is nothing like it to give vigor and
energy to his motions. When I came to this conclusion, I did not wait
long to put the feeling into action; and it was thus--But a new chapter
of my life deserves a new chapter of my history.

CHAPTER VII. A BOLD STROKE FOR AN OPENING IN THE WORLD

As regular as the day itself did I wait at the corner of Merrion Square,
at three o'clock, the arrival of Captain De Courcy, who came punctual
to the instant; indeed, the clatter of the pony's hoofs as he cantered
along always announced the striking of the Post-office clock. To
dismount, and fling me the bridle, with a short nod of the head in the
direction he wished me to walk the animal, was the extent of recognition
ever vouchsafed me; and as I never ventured upon even a word with
him, our intercourse was of the simplest possible kind. There was an
impassive quietude about his pale cold features that awed me. I never
saw him smile but once; it was when the mare seized me by the shoulder,
and tore with her teeth a great piece of my ragged coat away. Then,
indeed, he did vouchsafe to give a faint, listless smile, as he said to
his pampered nag, "Fie, fie! What a dirty feeder you are!"

Very little notice on his part, the merest act of recognition, a look, a
monosyllable, would have been enough to satisfy me,--anything, in short,
which might acknowledge that we were part of the same great chain, no
matter how many links might lie between us.

I do not wish it to be inferred that I had any distinct right to such
an acknowledgment, nor that any real advantage would have accrued to me
from obtaining it,--far from that; very little consideration might
have induced me to be contented with my station; and, if so, instead of
writing these notes in a boudoir with silk hangings, and--but this is
anticipating with a vengeance! And now to go back.

After three hours of a cold wait, on a rainy an