ton, my Lady. There '& a window, and it is
n't bigger than that there, and you can see seven baronies out of it
and a part of three counties, Killikelly's flour-mills, and the town of
Drumcoolaghan in the distance; not to speak of the Shannon winding for
miles through as elegant a bog as ever you set eyes upon."

"Indeed!" smiled her Ladyship, with a glance of deep interest.

"'T is truth, I 'm telling you, my Lady," continued he; "and, what's
more, 'twas our own, every stick and stone of it. From Crishnamuck
to Ballymodereena on one side, and from the chapel at Dooras down to
Drumcoolaghan, 'twas the Dalton estate."

"What a princely territory!"

"And why not? Weren't they kings once, or the same as kings? Did n't my
grandfather, Pearce, hold a court for life and death in his own parlor?
Them was the happy and the good times, too," sighed he, plaintively.

"But I trust your late news from Ireland is favorable?"

"Ah! there isn't much to boast about. The old families is dying out
fast, and the properties changing hands. A set of English rogues and
banker-fellows that made their money in dirty lanes and alleys."

A sort of imploring, beseeching anxiety from his daughter Kate here
brought Dalton to a dead stop, and he pulled up as suddenly as if on the
brink of a precipice.

"Pray, go on, Mr. Dalton," said Lady Hester, with a winning smile; "you
cannot think how much you have interested me. You are aware that we
really know nothing about poor dear Ireland; and I am so delighted to
learn from one so competent to teach."

"I did n't mean any offence, my Lady," stammered out Dalton, in
confusion. "There 's good and bad everywhere; but I wish to the Lord the
cotton-spinners would n't come among us, and their steam-engines, and
their black chimneys, and their big factories; and they say we are not
far from that now."

A gentle tap at the door which communicated with the sitting-room was
heard at this moment, and Dalton exclaimed,

"Come in!" but, not suffering the interruption to stop the current of
his discourse, he was about to resume, when Mr. Prichard's well-powdered
head appeared at the door.

"I began to suspect you had forgotten me, Mr. Dalton," said he; but
suddenly catching a glimpse of Lady Hester, he stopped to ask pardon for
the intrusion.

"Faith, and I just did," said Dalton, laughing; "couldn't you contrive
to step in in the morning, and we 'll talk that little matter over
again?"

"Yes, Pricha