ance he belonged to
the class of the comfortable farmer, and his massive silver watch-chain
and huge seal displayed a consciousness of his well-to-do condition in
life.

"Are you Mr. Driscoll?" said Lord Glengariff, as he looked at the letter
to prompt him to the name. "Pray take a seat!"

"Yes, my Lord, I 'm that poor creature Terry Driscoll; the neighbors
call me Tearin' Terry, but that 's all past and gone, Heaven be praised!
It was a fever I had, my Lord, and my rayson wandered, and I did many
a thing that desthroyed me entirely; I tore up the lease of my house,
I tore up Peter Driscoll's, my uncle's, will; ay, and worse than all, I
tore up all my front teeth!"

And, in evidence of this feat of dentistry, Mr. Driscoll gave a grin
that exposed his bare gums to view.

"Good heavens, how shocking!" exclaimed Lord Glen-gariff, though, not
impossibly, the expression was extorted by the sight rather than the
history of the calamity.

"Shocking indeed, my Lord,--that's the name for it!" said Terry,
sighing; "but ye see I was n't compos when I did it. I thought they were
a set of blackguards that I could n't root out of the land,--squatters
that would n't pay sixpence, nor do a day's work. That was the delusion
that was upon me!"

"I hold here a letter from Mr. Hankes," said his Lordship, pompously,
and in a tone that was meant to recall Mr. Driscoll from the personal
narrative he had entered upon with such evident self-satisfaction. "He
mentions you as one likely--that is to say--one in a position--a person,
in fact--"

"Yes, my Lord, yes," interrupted Terry, with a grin of unbounded
acquiescence.

"And adds," continued his Lordship, "your desire to communicate
personally with myself." The words were very few and not very
remarkable, and yet Lord Glengariff contrived to throw into them an
amount of significance really great. They seemed to say, "Bethink thee
well, Terry Driscoll, of the good fortune that this day has befallen
thee. Thy boldness has been crowned with success, and there thou sittest
now, being the poor worm that thou art, in converse with one who wears a
coronet."

And so, indeed, in all abject humility, did Mr. Driscoll appear to feel
the situation. He drew his feet closer together, and stole his hands up
the wide sleeves of his coat, as though endeavoring to diminish, as far
as might be, his corporeal presence.

His Lordship saw that enough had been done for subjection, and blandly
added, "A