t
over there till I have a look at you. You 're thinner, Davy,--a deal
thinner, than when you went away."

"I have nothing the matter with me; a little tired or so, that's all,"
said Dunn, hastily. "And how are things doing here, father, since I
left?"

"There's little to speak of," said the old man. "There never is much
doing at this season of the year. You heard, of course, that Gogarty has
lost his suit; they 're moving for a new trial, but they won't get it.
Lanty Moore can't pay up the rest of the purchase for Slanestown, and
I told Hankes to buy it in. Kelly's murderer was taken on Friday last,
near Kilbride, and offers to tell, God knows what, if they won't hang
him; and Sir Gilbert North is to be the new Secretary, if, as the
'Evening Mail' says, Mr. Davenport Dunn concurs in the appointment"--and
here the old man laughed till his eyes ran over. "That's all the news,
Davy, of the last week; and now tell me yours. The papers say you were
dining with kings and queens, and driving about in royal coaches all
over the Continent,--was it true, Davy?"

"You got my letters, of course, father?"

"Yes; and I could n't make out the names, they were all new and strange
to me. I want to have from yourself what like the people are,--are they
as hard-working, are they as 'cute as our own? There's just two things
now in the world,--coal and industry,--sorra more than that And so you
dined with the King of France?"

"With the Emperor, father. I dined twice; he took me over to
Fontainebleau and made me stay the day."

"You could tell him many a thing he'd never hear from another, Davy; you
could explain to him what's doing here, and how he might imitate it
over there,--rooting out the old vermin and getting new stock in the
land,--eh, Davy?"

"He needs no counsels, at least from such as me," said Dunn.

"Faith, he might have worse, far worse. An Encumbered Estate Court would
do all his work for him well, and the dirty word 'Confiscation' need
never be uttered!"

"He knows the road he wants to go," said Dunn, curtly.

"So he may; but that does n't prove it 's the best way."

"Whichever path he takes he'll tread it firmly, father, and that's more
than half the battle. If you only saw what a city he has made Paris--"

"That's just what I don't like. What's the good of beautifying and
gilding or ornamenting what you 're going to riddle with grape and
smash with round shot? It's like dressing a sweep in a field-marshal'