and."

"Tush--never mind the Attorney-General. Give up the question at issue;
send him, or his father, or whoever it is, the receipt for the rent due,
and take care Hemsworth does not molest him in future."

"But you don't see, boy, what we are doing. We hope to obtain the whole
of the Ballyvourney property--that is part of our plan; the tenants
there are in a state of absolute misery and starvation."

"Then, in God's name, give them plenty to eat; it doesn't signify much,
I suppose, whose tenantry they are, when they're hungry."

The old gentleman was scarcely prepared for such an extended basis for
his philanthropy, and, for a moment or two, seemed quite dumbfounded
by his son's proposition, while Fred continued--"If I understand the
matter, it lies thus: you owe a debt of gratitude which you are desirous
to acquit--you don't care to pay highly."

"On the contrary, I am quite willing," interposed Sir Marmaduke; "but
let the price be one, which shall realize a benefit equivalent to its
amount. If I assure these people in the possession of their land,
what security have I, that they will not continue, as of old, the same
useless, wasteful, spendthrift set they ever were--presenting the worst
possible example to the other tenants, and marring the whole force of
the lesson I am endeavouring to inculcate?"

"That, I take it, is more _their_ affair than _yours_, after all,"
said Fred; "you are not to confer the boon, and allocate its advantages
afterwards--but come, what kind of people are they?"

"Oh! a species of half-gentry, half-farmer set, I believe--proud as they
are poor--deeming themselves, as O'Donoghues, at least our equals; but
living, as I believe, in every kind of privation."

"Very well; sit down there, and let me have a check on your banker for
five hundred pounds, and leave the affair to me."

"But you mistake, Fred, they are as haughty as Lucifer."

"Just leave it to me, sir: I fancy I know something of the world by this
time. It may require more money, but the result I will answer for."

Sir Marmaduke's confidence in his son's tact and worldly skill was one
of the articles of his faith, and he sat down at the table and wrote the
order on the bank at once. "Here Fred," said he; "I only beg of you to
remember, that the way to express the grateful sense I entertain of this
boy's conduct is not by wounding the susceptibilities of his feelings;
and if they be above the class of farmers, which I reall