gh, what determined you in your choice of a
residence here?"

"I suppose I must confess it was mainly a money consideration. The bank
held some rather heavy mortgages over this property, which they were
somewhat disposed to consider as capable of great improvement, and as I
was growing a little wearied of City life, I fancied I 'd come over here
and--"

"Regenerate Ireland, eh?"

"Or, at least, live very economically," added he, laughing.

"I may be permitted to doubt that part of the experiment," said
Lord Culduff, as his eyes ranged over the table, set forth in all the
splendor that plate and glass could bestow.

"I suspect papa means a relative economy," said Marion, "something very
different from our late life in England."

"Yes, my last three years have been very costly ones," said Colonel
Bramleigh, sighing. "I lost heavily by the sale of Earlshope, and my
unfortunate election, too, was an expensive business. It will take some
retrenchment to make up for all this. I tell the boys they'll have to
sell their hunters, or be satisfied, like the parson, to hunt one day
a week." The self-complacent, mock humility of this speech was all too
apparent.

"I take it," said Culduff, authoritatively, "that every gentleman"--and
he laid a marked emphasis on the "gentleman"--"must at some period or
the other of his life have spent more money than he ought--more than was
subsequently found to be convenient."

"I have repeatedly done so," broke in Cutbill, "and invariably
been sorry for it afterwards, inasmuch as each time one does it the
difficulty increases."

"Harder to get credit, you mean?" cried Jack, laughing.

"Just so; and one's friends get tired of helping one. Just as they told
me, there was a fellow at Blackwall used to live by drowning himself. He
was regularly fished up once a week, and stomach-pumped and 'cordialled'
and hot-blanketed, and brought round by the Humane Society's people,
till at last they came to discover the dodge, and refused to restore
him any more; and now he's reduced to earn his bread as a
water-bailiff--cruel hard on a fellow of such an ingenious turn of
mind."

While the younger men laughed at Cutbill's story, Lord Culduff gave him
a reproving glance from the other end of the table, palpably intended to
recall him to a more sedate and restricted conviviality.

"Are we not to accompany you?" said Lord Culduff to Marion, as she and
her sister arose to retire. "Is this barbarism of