a glance at some of the inscriptions which figured on the
different doors: "Inland Navigation Office," "Grand Munster Junction
Drainage," "Compressed Fuel Company," "Reclaimed Lands," "Encumbered
Estates," "Coast Fishery," "Copper and Cobalt Mining Association,"
"Refuge Harbor Company," "Slate and Marble Quarries," "Tyrawley and
Erris Bank of Deposit," "Silver and Lead Mines." These were but a few of
the innumerable "associations," "companies," and "industrial
speculations" which denoted the cares and employments of that busy head.
Indeed, the altered fortunes of that great mansion itself presented no
bad type of the changed destinies of the land. Here, once, was the abode
of only too splendid hospitality, of all that refined courtesy and
polished manners could contribute to make society as fascinating as it
was brilliant Here were wit and beauty, and a high, chivalrous tone of
manners, blended, it is true, with wildest extravagance and a general
levity of thought, that imparted to intercourse the glowing tints of an
orgy; and in their stead were now the active signs of industry, all the
means by which wealth is amassed and great fortunes acquired, every
resource of the country explored, every natural advantage consulted and
developed,--the mountains, the valleys, the rivers, the sea-coasts, the
vast tracts of bog and moss, the various mines and quarries, the
products once deemed valueless, the districts formerly abandoned as
irreclaimable, all brought out into strong light, and all investigated
in a spirit which hitherto had been unknown to Ireland. What a change
was here, and what necessities must have been the fate of those who had
so altered all their habits and modes of thought as to conform to a
system so widely different from all they had hitherto followed! It was
like re-colonizing an empire, so subversive were all the innovations of
what had preceded them.

"Eh, Barton, we used to trip up these stairs more flippantly once on a
time," said a very handsome old man, whose well-powdered hair and queue
were rather novelties in modern appearance, to a feeble figure who,
assisted by his servant, was slowly toiling his way upwards.

"How d' ye do, Glengariff?" said the other, with a weak smile. "So we
used; and they were better days in every sense of the word."

"Not a doubt of it," said the other. "Is that your destination?" And he
pointed to a door inscribed with the title "Encumbered Estates."

"Ay!" said Barton