e a wardrobe for our fancy ball, which
I suddenly heard of as being at Limerick; and so, not trusting the
mission to another, I started off myself, and here I am, with materials
for more Turks, Monks, Sailors, Watchmen, Greeks, Jugglers, and
Tyrolese, than ever travelled in anything save a caravan with one
horse."

"Are your theatrical intentions all abandoned?" cried Jennings.

"I trust not," said Linton; "but I heard that Miss Meek had decided on
the ball to come off first."

"Hip! hip! hip!" was moaned out, in very lachrymose tone, from a sofa
where the boy hussar, very sick and very tipsy, lay stretched on his
back.

"Who is that yonder?" asked Linton.

"A young fellow of ours," said Jennings, indolently.

"I thought they made their heads better at Sandhurst."

"They used in my time," said Upton; "but you have no idea how the thing
has gone down."

"Quite true," chimed in another; "and I don't think we 've seen the
worst of it yet. Do you know, they talk of an examination for all
candidates for commissions!"

"Well, I must say," lisped the guardsman, "I believe it would be an
improvement for the 'line.'"

"The household brigade can dispense with information," said an infantry
captain.

"I demur to the system altogether," said Linton. "Physicians tell us
that the intellectual development is always made at the expense of the
physical, and as one of the duties of a British army is to suffer yellow
fever in the West Indies and cholera in the East, I vote for leaving
them strong in constitution and intact in strength as vacant heads and
thoughtless skulls can make them."

"Oh dear me! yes," sighed Meek, who, by one of his mock concurrences,
effectually blinded the less astute portion of the audience from seeing
Linton's impertinence.

"What has been doing here in my absence?" said Linton; "have you no
event worth recording for me?"

"There is a story," said Upton, "that Cashel and Kennyfeck have
quarrelled,--a serious rupture, they say, and not to be repaired."

"How did it originate? Something about the management of the property?"

"No, no,--it was a row among the women. They laid some scheme for making
Cashel propose for one of the girls."

"Not Olivia, I hope?" said Upton, as he lighted a new cigar.

"I rather suspect it was," interposed another.

"In any case, Linton," cried Jennings, "you are to be the gainer, for
the rumor says, Cashel will give you the agency, with his house to live
in,