ant there, or more accustomed to see similar exhibitions,
I cannot tell; but true it is they paid their shillings, felt his
ribs, walked home, and pronounced Barney a most exemplary Irishman.
But not content with the capital, he must make a tour in the
provinces, and accordingly went starring it about through Leeds,
Birmingham, Manchester, and all the other manufacturing towns, as if
in mockery of the poor people who did not know the secret how to live
without food.

Mr. Cavanagh was now living--if life it can be called--in one of the
best hotels, when, actuated by that spirit of inquiry that
characterises the age, a respectable lady, who kept a boarding-house,
paid him a visit, to ascertain, if possible, how far his system might
be made applicable to her guests, who, whatever their afflictions,
laboured under no such symptoms as his.

She was pleased with Barney,--she patted him with her hand; he was
round, and plump, and fat, much more so, indeed, than many of her
daily dinner-party; and had, withal, that kind of joyous, rollicking,
devil-may-care look, that seems to bespeak good condition;--but this
the poor lady, of course, did not know to be an inherent property in
Pat, however poor his situation.

After an interview of an hour long she took her leave, not exhibiting
the usual satisfaction of other visitors, but with a dubious look and
meditative expression, that betokened a mind not made up, and a heart
not at ease; she was clearly not content, perhaps the abortive effort
to extract a confession from Mr. Cavanagh might be the cause, or
perhaps she felt like many respectable people whose curiosity is only
the advanced guard to their repentance, and who never think that in
any exhibition they get the worth of their money. This might be the
case, for as fasting is a negative process, there is really little to
see in the performer. Had it been the man that eats a sheep; "_a la
bonne heure!_" you have something for your money there: and I can even
sympathize with the French gentleman who follows Van Amburgh to this
day, in the agreeable hope, to use his own words, of "assisting at the
_soiree_, when the lions shall eat Mr. Van Amburgh." This, if not
laudable is at least intelligible. But to return, the lady went her
way, not indeed on hospitable thoughts intent, but turning over in her
mind various theories about abstinence, and only wishing she had the
whole of the Cavanagh family for boarders at a guinea a-week.