her companion, "don't go too near
him. Gracious! look at the bludgeon, or beam, or something he carries
in his hand, to fight' and beat the people, I suppose: yet," she added,
putting up her glass, "the man is actually not ill-looking; and, though
not so tall as the Irishman in Sheridan's Rivals, he is well made."

"His eyes are good," said her companion--"a bright gray, and keen; and
were it not that his nose is rather short and turned up, he would be
handsome."

"George, my love," exclaimed the lady of the mansion, "he is like most
Irishmen of his class that I have seen; indeed, scarcely so intelligent,
for he does appear quite a simpleton, except, perhaps, a lurking kind of
expression, which is a sign of their humor, I suppose. Don't you think
so, my love?"

"No, my dear; I think him a bad specimen of the Irishman. Whether it
is that he talks our language but imperfectly, or that he is a stupid
creature, I cannot say; but in selling the pig just now, he actually
told me that he would let me have it for more than it was worth."

"Oh, that was so laughable! We will speak to him, though."

The degree of estimation in which these civilized English held Phil was
so low, that this conversation took place within a few yards of him,
precisely as if he had been an animal of an inferior species, or one of
the aborigines of New Zealand.

"Pray what is your name?" inquired the matron.

"Phadhrumshagh Corfuffle, plase yer haner: my fadher carried the same
name upon him. We're av the Corfuflies av Leatherum Laghy, my lady; but
my grandmudher was a Dornyeen, an' my own mudher, plase yer haner, was
o' the Shudhurthagans o' Ballymadoghy, my ladyship, _Sladh anish, amuck
bradagh!_*--be asy, can't you, an' me in conwersation wit the beauty o'
the world that I'm spakin' to."

* Be quiet now, you wicked pig.

"That's the Negus language," observed,one of the young ladies, who
affected to be a wit and a blue-stocking; "it's Irish and English
mixed."

"Thrath, an' but that the handsome young lady's so purty," observed
Phil, "I'd be sayin' myself that that's a quare remark upon a poor
unlarned man; but, Gad bless her, she is so purty what can one say for
lookin' an her!"

"The poor man, Adelaide, speaks as well as he can," replied the lady,
rather reprovingly: "he is by no means so wild as one would have
expected."

"Candidly speaking, much _tamer_ than I expected," rejoined the wit.
Indeed, I meant the poor Irishman no