s of the mansion itself are
running out to try if we are in appearance, and the very smoke disports
itself hilariously in the air, and bounds up as if it was striving
to catch the first glimpse of the clargy. When we approach, the
good man--_pater-familias_--comes out to meet us, and the good
woman--_mater-farmilias_--comes curtseying from the door to give the
head _milliafailtha_. No sooner do we parsave ourselves noticed, then
out comes the Breviary, and in a moment we are at our morning devotions.
I being the rector, am particularly grave and dignified. I do not speak
much, but am rather sharp, and order the curates, whom I treat, however,
with great respect before the people, instantly to work. This impresses
those who are present with awe and reverence for us all, especially for
Father O'Shaughnessy himself--(that's me).--I then take a short turn or
two across the floor, silently perusing my office, after which I lay
it aside, and relax into a little conversation with the people of the
house, to show that I can conciliate by love as readily as I can impress
them with fear; for, you see _divide et impera_ is as aptly applied
to the passions as to maxims of state policy--ehem. I then go to my
tribunal, and first hear the man and woman and family of the house, and
afther them the other penitents according as they can come to me.

"Thus we go on absolving in great style, till it is time for the
_matutinal_ meal--vulgarly called breakfast; when the whiskey, eggs,
toast, and tea as strong as Hercules, with ham, fowl, beef-steaks,
or mutton-chops, all pour in upon us in the full tide of hospitality.
Helter-skelter, cut and thrust, right and left, we work away, till the
appetite reposes itself upon the cushion of repletion: and off we go
once more, full an' warm, to the delicate employment of adjudicating
upon sin and transgression, until dinner comes, when, having despatched
as many as possible--for the quicker we get through them the better--we
set about despatching what is always worth a ship-load of such
riff-raff--_videlicet_, a good and extensive dinner. Oh, ye pagan gods
of eating and drinking, Bacchus and--let me see who the presiding deity
of good feeding was in the Olympian synod--as I'm an unworthy candidate
I forget that topic of learning; but no matter, _non constat_. Oh, ye
pagan professors of ating and drinking, Bacchus, and Epicurus, and St.
Heliogabalus, Anthony of Padua, and Paul the Hermit, who poached fo