. Finnerty, than to suppose that any
motive could influence me in deciding upon the claims of candidates for
Maynooth, besides their own moral character and literary acquirements.
So long as I live, this, and this alone, shall be the rule of my
conduct, touching persons in the circumstances of young O'Shaughnessy."

"My gracious lord," said Denis, "don't be angry wid Mr. Finnerty. I'll
bear it all, for it was my fau't. The horse is mine, and say what
you will, out of your stable I'll never bring him. I think, wid great
sibmission a man may do what he pleases wid his own."

"Certainly," said the Bishop; "my consent to permit your son to goto
Maynooth is my own. Now this consent I will not give if you press that
mode of argument upon me."

"My Reverend Lord, as heaven's above me, I'd give all I'm worth to see
the boy in Maynooth. If he doesn't go afther all our hopes, I'd break my
heart." He was so deeply affected that the large tears rolled down his
cheeks as he spoke.

"Will your Lordship buy the horse?" he added; "I don't want him, and
you, maybe, do?"

"I do not want him," said the Bishop, "and if I did, I would not, under
the present circumstances, purchase him from you."

"Then my boy won't get in, your lordship. And you'll neither buy the
horse, nor take him as a present. My curse upon him for a horse! The
first thing I'll do when I get home will be to put a bullet through him,
for he has been an unlucky thief to us. Is my son aquil to the others,
that came to pass your lordship?" asked Denis.

"There is none of them properly qualified," said the Bishop. "If there
be any superiority among them your son has it. He is not without natural
talent, Mr. Finnerty; his translations are strong and fluent, but
ridiculously pedantic. That, however, is perhaps less his fault than the
fault of those who instructed him."

"Are you anxious to dispose of the horse?" said the Counsellor.

"A single day, sir, he'll never pass in my stable," said Denis; "he has
been an unlucky baste to me an' mine, an' to all that had anything to do
wid him."

"Pray what age is he?"

"Risin' four, sir; 'deed I believe he's four all out, an' a purty
devil's clip he is, as you'd wish to see."

"Come," said the Counsellor, rising, "let us have a look at him.
Mr. Finnerty, you're an excellent judge; will you favor me with your
opinion?"

The priest and he, accompanied by the two O'Shaughnessys, passed out to
the stable yard, where their