nd the latter's delicacy. Costigan scrawled him an order for
a box, lightly slipped the sovereigns into his waistcoat, and slapped
his hand over the place where they lay. They seemed to warm his old
sides.

"Faith, sir," said he, "the bullion's scarcer with me than it used to
be, as is the case with many a good fellow. I won six hundthred of 'em
in a single night, sir, when me kind friend, His Royal Highness the
Duke of Kent, was in Gibralther." And he straightway poured out to Pen
a series of stories regarding the claret drunk, the bets made, the races
ridden by the garrison there, with which he kept the young gentleman
amused until the arrival of their host and his breakfast.

Then it was good to see the Captain's behaviour before the devilled
turkey and the mutton chops! His stories poured forth unceasingly, and
his spirits rose as he chatted to the young men. When he got a bit
of sunshine, the old lazzarone basked in it; he prated about his
own affairs and past splendour, and all the lords, generals, and
Lord-Lieutenants he had ever known. He described the death of his
darling Bessie, the late Mrs. Costigan, and the challenge he had sent
to Captain Shanty Clancy, of the Slashers, for looking rude at Miss
Fotheringay as she was on her kyar in the Phaynix; and then he described
how the Captain apologised, gave a dinner at the Kildare Street, where
six of them drank twinty-one bottles of claret, etc. He announced that
to sit with two such noble and generous young fellows was the happiness
and pride of an old soldier's existence; and having had a second glass
of Curacoa, was so happy that he began to cry. Altogether we should
say that the Captain was not a man of much strength of mind, or a very
eligible companion for youth; but there are worse men, holding much
better places in life, and more dishonest, who have never committed half
so many rogueries as he. They walked out, the Captain holding an arm of
each of his dear young friends, and in a maudlin state of contentment.
He winked at one or two tradesmen's shops where, possibly, he owed a
bill, as much as to say, "See the company I'm in--sure I'll pay you, my
boy,"--and they parted finally with Mr. Foker at a billiard-room, where
the latter had a particular engagement with some gentlemen of Colonel
Swallowtail's regiment.

Pen and the shabby Captain still walked the street together; the
Captain, in his sly way, making inquiries about Mr. Foker's fortune
and statio