ll, endeavouring by
an allusion to something they were speaking of, to relieve the excessive
awkwardness of the moment.

"'Yes, to be sure, _my_ friend,' chimed in Sir Harvey, 'and a devilish
good fellow too, and the best judge of horse-flesh.'

"'I havn't a doubt of it,' was the dry remark of the Captain; 'but how
did he get here?'

"'Sir,' said I, in a voice scarce audible with passion, 'whatever, or
whoever I am, by birth at least I am fully your equal.'

"'D----n your pedigree,' said he coolly.

"'Why, Harry, interrupted Blundell: 'what are you thinking of?
Mr. O'Kelly is----'

"'A jockey--a horse-dealer, if you will, and the best hand at passing
off a screw, I've met for some time. I say, sir,' continued he in a
louder tone, 'that roan charger hasn't answered his warranty--he stands
at Dycer's for you.'

"Had a thunderbolt fallen in the midst of us, the consternation could
not have been greater--as for me, everything around bore a look of
mockery and scorn: derision and contempt sat on every feature, and a
wild uncertainty of purpose, like coming insanity, flitted through my
brain: what I said, or how I quitted the spot, I am unable to say; my
last remembrance of that accursed moment was the burst of horrid
laughter that filled my ears, as I rushed out. I almost think that I
hear it still, like the yell of the furies; its very cadence was
torture. I ran from the house--I crossed the fields without a thought of
whither I was going-escape, concealment, my only object. I sought to
hide myself for ever from the eyes of those who had looked upon me with
such withering contempt; and I would have been thankful to him who would
have given me refuge, beneath the dank grass of the churchyard.

"Never did a guilty man fly from the scene of his crime with more
precipitate haste, than did I from the spot which had witnessed my
shame, and degradation. At every step, I thought of the cruel speeches,
the harsh railings, and the bitter irony, of all, before whom, but one
hour ago, I stood chief and pre-eminent; and although I vowed to myself
never to meet any of them again, I could not pluck from my heart the
innate sense of my despicable condition, and how low I must now stand in
the estimation of the very lowest, I had so late looked down upon.
And here let me passingly remark, that while we often hold lightly the
praise of those, upon whose powers of judgment and reach of information
we place little value, by some stra