z3sEE>>y) 'wmw -*^sr iflsi a^f 5 3^?:.^ ^r§N IP Qg^7-> .y,, 4 , . ': -ram* -J* § 31 mod — ^v^3|KS r5 IP^SL HBH^ iSp 1^*3^ fiBR? 1 sH*? MM' Oft'* Nr^8s^-^ : -^v - life B i viraw -'.0 OS f^_ rim:^M- fmMJMmr^mm /, f. STe^tre L I B R.AFLY OF THE UN IVERSITY OF ILLINOIS 823 S-t 4fc't The person charging this material is re- sponsible for its return to the library from which it was withdrawn on or before the Latest Date stamped below. Theft, mutilation, and underlining of books are reasons for disciplinary action and may result in dismissal from the University. To renew call Telephone Center, 333-8400 UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS LIBRARY AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN JAN 2 4 1)84 L161— O-1096 Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2010 with funding from University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign http://www.archive.org/details/interdictnovel01stew THE INTERDICT, A NOVEL. 1 Do thou, ir.y soul, the aestiu'd period wait, When God shall solve the dark decrees of fate; His now unequal dispensations clear, And make all wise and beautiful appear." IN THREE VOLUMES. vOl. i. LONDON: T. & W. BOONE, 29, NEW BOND, STREET. 1840, Printed "by T. C. Newby, Angel Hill, Bury, 823 v, / I s THE INTERDICT CHAPTER L I sit entranc'd in mem'ry's silent hall ; Forward from marble shrines pale figu^s bend In pensive recognition. Quickly all The noic fades into nothingness ; the friend I loved oblit'rates him I love ; the blaze Which noontide splendours to life's autumn lend, Is dimm'd by thronging thoughts of calm spring-days. It may happen that I shall be pronounced vain and egotistical for shadowing forth the following story under the first person, and for placing myself foremost of the corps drama- tique ; but he of whom nobody else would speak, may be excused for saying a little of himself, and he at whom nobody would look, __were goodlier forms in view, should, modestly — it being stated that he must be dragged in somewhere — come forward when he may hope : to escape the odium of comparison; just as VOL. I. B 2 THE INTERDICT. the minor member of a drama shuffles with panting heart to the proscenium, to set the chairs and smooth the cushions for more ex- alted debutanti. Furthermore, the following sketch will prove that I have little demonstrable excuse for self- complacency. I was a poor-looking weed, whom no physical culture, however salutary, could warm into healthfulness ; a pale, ab- stracted book-worm, with dark-browed deep- seated eyes, which saw no fairer object than a musty classic. A halt in my gait, and a diffi- culty of utterance, occasioned, not by mal- formation of the articulating organs, but by sheer fright at finding myself talking, increased to very painfulness my constitutional shyness and reserve. Of our family circle the next in plainness, but prior to all others in the art of 'plaguing, was a cousin named Quinilla — Miss Quinny O'Toole as Slauveen, her serving lad, used to dignify her. — Oh, she was a wearisome woman ! — not a whit less slighted than myself by comeliness, yet she thought herself a beauty. She was spare in every thing but words. She THE INTERDICT. 3 had thin red hair, a thin red nose, her lips were thin, her jaws such as we vulgarly call lantern ; her residue of structure was equally attenuated. She built her beauty on two keen grey eyes, and what she called a splendid foot and ankle. Our cousin was no favorite of mine. She was verbose by nature and cultivation ; her velocity of speech distracted me ; it was a hurricane of syllables, drifted, as it were, into one hissing, whistling, never ending sentence. Measured with her ideas her words were in the ratio of a bushel to a grain. Talk of poverty of language ! — our cousin never knew such indigence — she could help you on occasion to a lac of vocables, or edge in, generously, the very word you panted to bring out. Quinilla (she clings to my pen like an offi- cious hair) was not our genuine cousin ; she was sister to my uncle's wife, but, fearing we might call her aunt, had dubbed herself by a less matronly appellative. She piqued herself on ancient blood, and made boast of her pro- pinquity to the great O'Tooles of Glendalough. Her sister, my aunt Laurentia, had nothing B 3 4 THE INTERDICT. but descent in common with Quinilla — She was a blunt, rightminded, cheerful woman ; clear in perception (where her partialities did not interfere) and resolute in action ; tena- cious of her family, and her sister's beauty. The spontaneous kindness of her nature gave an expression of honest interest to her counte- nance, and a friendly accent to her true-hearted idiomatic style of speech. To superficial observers she appeared merely an outspoken thrifty person : — even I used for many years to wonder how so polished a man as my uncle, Edward Fitzgerald, should have chosen so unintellectual a partner ; but I have long learned to value her rectitude of mind beyond the proudest gifts of genius. And now stand forth ye gentler images to spiritualize my canvass — ye fair and sweet cre- ations, whose childish faces come to me in dreams, whose griefs and joys and warm affec- tions are, as it were, entwined^with my identity. And surely we were shrined each in the others heart, my sisters, even from Those chequered days of babyhood, When mirth would tread on melancholy, And they would seem companions. THE INTERDICT. 5 Which of you, mates of my thoughtless years, which of you, first, in maiden drapery, shall live upon my sketch-leaf? — If I choose the mirthful, the pensive gently advances her en- treating face ; — if I choose the serious, the cherub head, bright with frolic's essence, is waved reproachfully. Come then Marion, my own dear Marion, come. I cannot well determine in what Marion's beauty lay ; whether in feature, look, or tone. You saw the face was lovely, but could not explain why you wished to treasure it in me- mory, and call it forth at will to gaze at, for many besides Marion have had cloudless eyes of deep deep blue, bright hair, aud dimpled cheeks. The beholder was ever doubtful in w r hat her witchery consisted ; before you could observe the regularity of feature you were taken by the life and spirit of the face ; but at every thought this spirit seemed to change. — You loved its sprightliness — 'twas gone ! — its pen- siveness — 'twas lost in smiles of arch defiance, petulance, or derision. The beauty of Helen, my younger sister, was more intelligible ; — a tranquil countenance, b THE INTERDICT. features of a Spanish cast, dark eyes., not sparkling, but singularly penetrating. — An air of diffidence tempered the gravity of her de- meanour; this diffidence, however, was occasi- onally blended with a defensive pride which, when excited, kept down the blushes of timi- dity. Marion, with all her light-hearted sauci- ness, was a very coward ; the mere accent of severity depressed her ; but Helen, when justly roused, would forget her usual self in the ear- nestness of expostulation. The sisters* characters in other points, too ? might puzzle the observer. The elder, quick to resent, and sometimes humourously per- verse, could be frightened even into a surrender of her judgment ; the younger, careless and yielding in minor points, if convinced that op- position was essential, would manifest a reso- lute tenacity little expected from one who in the smoother scenes of life was bashfully averse to observation and display. The lot of the one should have been cast in fondness and sun- shine; the other was a high-minded creature with a capacity for enjoyment in any sphere of action. THE INTERDICT. / Their tastes and pursuits could as little have been inferred from their outward seeming as their characters. Whatever was marvellous in tradition and mystical in nature Marion's sen- timents were akin to; she was insatiate of witch-spun stories, of tales that embody the romantic spirit of chivalry, and revelled in the Runic legends bequeathed by the bards who had accompanied our Northern invaders. He- len's enthusiasm was more subdued, her tastes graver, and I had coaxed her into the paths of scholastic erudition ; but while she did homage to the genius, she either could not understand, or would not subscribe to, the sublime assump- tions of the early philosophers. She ridiculed my veneration for mad patriots and visionary republics ; and insisted that if I continued to bewilder myself with flimsy subtleties I should lose the faculty of distinguishing between right and wrong, and also my reverence for those high ordinances which forbade the abomina- tions so freely practised by my heroes and enacted by my legislators. — But these debates were held in after years ; it is in the May-time of girlhood that I now portray my sisters. 8 THE INTERDICT. For a long time I as little doubted the enti- ty of my mythologic dames and heroes as of my beloved historians and philosophers ; and be- lieved as steadfastly in Minos as in Herodotus. Of the workPs system and its substances, of the laws which regulate the universe, I knew just as much as those rhapsodists inculcated, who made the planets a chromatic hurly-burly, and the earth a rocking-horse fortuitously formed of dancing atoms ; and of the worlds modern usages and practices I had just as much idea as a resuscitated Pythagorean might be imagined to possess. My uncle and my tutor — both were com- bined in one — was as enamoured of my old scholiasts as myself, though not perhaps as in- timately persuaded of the truth and justness of their systems. The world had so ill treated him or some one dear to him, that to shut out its very name he had immured himself in a wild glen near the South-western coast of Ire- land. There, severed by almost trackless moun- tains from the din of public life, he gradually lost even the impressions which communion with busier scenes had made. In proportion THE INTERDICT. 9 as these had faded, his natural tone of mind resumed its vigour ; misanthropy, with all its sour concomitants, departed ; he looked back to nothing of the past except to the classic studies of his youth ; his books recalled to him the only race of humankind he wished to recol- lect; even the wholesome teaching of experience, because it brought the base-minded again up- on the foreground, was sought to be obliterated. My good uncle S — I see him now bending forward his patriarchal head, thoughts full of kindness legible in his eye — Can I do justice to the benevolence which knew better how to sutler than to witness pain ! the self denial practised to encrease the store from which our ragged neighbours were relieved ! My uncie could not hate, he could not even be unkind ; his nature wanted the incitement. For every child he had a friendly nod, a half- penny. The very churl would wear a gracious look before him, cheated into courteousness by a face that wore " The lineaments of gospel books." Every thing connected with my uncle in his B 5 10 THE INTERDICT. mountain home is fresh and prominent — even? his old high-backed chair, with each feature of its curious carved work, I can call forth to seat him in — his study chair — the back of which we used to climb, and stroke his head, and turn it from the Median wars to notice our mock combats. In after days grown more se- date, taught — not from reproof — to understand his silent wave, how we would steal each to a favorite nook in this our favorite room, and softly drawing forth a volume, (oftimes a folio more weighty than ourselves) would soon be- come as rapt in bye-gone days as he was, as intimate with buried heroes, poets, and phi- losophers. This study was the scene of noiseless and supreme delight, our port of refuge from Qui- niUVs clatter, our self-awarded little Goshen. Nor was our studious turn extraordinary : we were children of the rocks and wilds; our tendencies, training, and habits were peculiar ; we never saw a toy, we scarcely knew the meaning of accomplishments ; we were quite indifferent to the form and texture of our rai- ment, whether it were coarse or fine, suitable THE INTERDICT. 11 or unbecoming; we had no one to compete with ; between us and the natives of our glen there was just the grade which separates the rustic from the clown. Of artificial life we knew no more than what the mimic images in antiquated books displayed to us, or what Qui- nihVs livelier images at times revealed. We learned just what we wished to learn, and no more ; we were never tasked, never praised, at least for our acquirements. Our scripture teaching was not forced and of necessity ; it was never made unamiable by penance. Books became our load-stars simply from the unalloyed enjoyment they afforded, other sources of a child's amusement finding no path to our re- tirement. Our library was not exclusively a temple for the ancients, albeit the fairest portion of it was allotted to my oracles. Some moderns, mostly English of the Elizabethan age or earlier, had, racher from accident than from good will, found entrance there ; and, like intruders, had been assigned a stinted lodgment in a neglected corner, piled between the top shelf and the ceiling. They were eleemosynary guests — in- 12 THE INTERDICT. mates on mere tolerance — visited only by the moths, until Helen, rather at issue with my philosophy, sought out some clearer system to arrive at truth, and in her voyage of research lighted on the " black letter region." Curi- ously examining the long slighted occupants she selected some which were promptly located in a freer quarter, thenceforward her sacrarmm* Marion, who had not a particle of taste for any thing in classic story, unless it were for Socrates' familiar genius, seized upon the tomes rejected by her sister. Her shriek of rapture startled my uncle, then planning with Xeno- phon the retreat of the ten thousand, and tumbled me from Helicon. Chronicles of Ire- land, some in a garb so stiff and antiquated, that none but so attached a devotee could have desired their acquaintance ; legends in vellum of our Scythic ancestors, glossaries and itine- raries with marvellous addenda ; an Irish bible of 1681 ; an Ossian, (the most modern and best dressed of the party,) a well thumbed Shakspeare ; Josephus, the Fairie Queen, and Spenser's state of Ireland ; curious annals, Bardic traditions, and, above all_, a copious dis~ THE INTERDICT. 13 sertation on Irish faerie and demonology — such were the dust-covered, worm-eaten dainties Marion so clamorously greeted ; diet she thenceforth fed upon, to the discomfiture of the old devourers* 14 THE INTERDICT. CHAPTER II. Chasing the lessons of maturer age Come fancy s coinings ; Runes and nurs'ry tales, And prattled mysteries, the fairy page, The " once upon a time," v\hich never fails To silence murmur. Lullaby of pain, Leader of thought — Fiction — thy halcyon sails Waft us to childhood's wonders back again. Thus did we hold converse with the dead, each in a chosen nook ; oftimes interchanging thoughts and sympathies, quoting or reciting from a favored author, and by this commerce of opinion participating somewhat in each other's studies. Marion's legends won more fixed attention than our abstruser themes :. even my uncle was at times detected skulking from the field of Marathon, to listen to the THE INTERDICT. 15 feats of O'Driscol or McCarthy, St. Lawrence or De Courcy. Helen also often deserted El dorado for figments as ingenious : while her sister read, she would interweave the graver subject of her own reflections with the chivalric or romantic fiction, and incorporating therewith traits of humble life and " right merry conceits" — such specimens of drollery and untutored sentiment as our mountain clan afforded, — she would shadow out a tale to which, at even-tide, we all became wide-gaping auditors. Whenever a variety was wanted Quinilla would wedge in some apt absurdity — absurdity at least to our untaught conceptions, in which the world's traffickers obscurely floated. Qui- nilla was indeed, to us, " mankind's epitome ;" the only one of us who knew of life, of con- ventional, punctilious life — - polite she called it. She had kept up her early training in gentility by annual visits to Mrs. Bullock, a brazier's wife in Cork, and erst a school-mate of our cousin. This Mrs. B. (thus termed in soft elision by Quinilla,) had lost a leetle caste, but gained encrease of substance, by her union with the brazier ; and though some Plebs related 1(5 THE INTERDICT. to the husband were grudgingly admitted to her routs, yet still the wife kept up her aristo- cracy by an interfusion of tip-tops. What a flash would Quinny make in this her yearly issue from eclipse ! — I see her at this moment equipped in scarlet riding-dress, pilli- oned behind Slauveen on Lanty Maw, a testy rat-tailed pack-horse, my uncle's only beast of burthen. Slauveen was the most accomplished member of the household. There was not a bird or beast in our rough glen whose tone he could not borrow — he seemed engrafted into every tribe, adopted by the sympathies of every genus, and when he wished the creatures fol- lowed him. Also, he commanded half a dozen countenances, the which he shifted so adroitly to serve his own and puzzle others' specula- tions, that the visage nature gave him could rarely be detected. He had been selected by Quinilla as a fit recipient of her syllogisms; something to ex- haust her erudition on. When old enough he was appointed Esquire to our cousin on her city visits, and drilled into a type of Mrs. THE INTERDICT. 1/ Bullock's week-day shop-boy, and Sunday lacquey. His lady changed the pet name of u Slauvecn," bestowed by his compeers of the glen, into (i Patricius," and by vociferous remonstrance won him to wear shoes and "look like something human ;" still, but at longer intervals, imparting " erudition," which her discreet disciple rejected or received according to his humour, for not even Quinilla's rhetoric could fix Slauveen's attention when Marion's quick, light footstep struck his ear — vainly would our cousin spend her moving eloquence; the page was like a post. I have seen her weep with rage while her Patricius stood a statue of himself, a living log, until the climax of her wrath would burst into the welcome words—" get out !" — The moment after, noth- ing of Slauveen confronted his insulted patron- ess, but just his empty shoes; echo had not repeated the command before the barefooted delinquent was already halfway up the (e Fairies' pathway/' directed by Marionfa wild, arch, laugh. Of all the various tribes of indistinct realities dimly revealed to, or dreamed of, by enthu- 18 THE INTERDICT. siasts the romancers of our glen held most communion with the fairies ; wayward spirits, in conic caps, gold tunics, and red slippers, whose elements were twilight, moonshine, dew, and perfumes. Slauveen, as head of the glen- boys, was particularly noticed by these etherial substances. He knew every part of their establishment, their courts and kitchens, double-bedded rooms and stables ; and often was indebted to their bounty for a hot supper and night's lodging. To Helen and me, (the uninitiated in fairy mysteries,) his luminous description of these visible invisibles and their nimble exploits was perplexing ; but by Marion, (who would have dived to the earth's centre to embrace a Gnome, or into a volcano for one bright glance of Salamandrine,) these inklings of adventure with the tiny confrater- nity were received without the drawback of a single doubt. 1 have announced myself a feeble, sickly boy, by accident debarred that exercise which might have corrected constitutional debility. My lameness rendered the rough ascents up which our rambles led, distressing. When I THE INTERDICT. 19 would flag, Helen would sit with me to watch the cloud-shadows sweep across the mountain slopes, while Marion would pursue her upward course, swift as the shadow we were tracing, her guide outpouring his spirit lore for her instruction. Each fissure had its fairy tenant; each pinnacle enthroned a fairy queen ; the broken crags that crossed the stream were fair} 7 stepping stones ; ravines were fairy bowers ; some granite wrecks, rather gigantic for such appropriation, were fairy sugar-loaves ; a neigh- bouring hill was " hungry" because the fairies fasted there; every pebble was awarded to these frolic gentles, and every turn of good or evil fortune. Whether you crossed the torrent featly or fell into its bed ; whether you bravely climbed the steep or tumbled to its base, you still must thank the fairies, and answer their enquiries, sent in the hollow gust, the moaning breeze and waterfall. It is cheering to think on one's young times, to muse on home, the home of childhood, the ingle nook, the pleasant tale, the merry argu- ment, in which to dirfer took nothing from our mutual good will. Even my aunt's quaint 20 THE INTERDICT. questions, breaking on Helen's story thus — > " And how could Sir Amoric fight so well ten days without a dinner Helen? — and what did Lady Nesta do so long in that deserted place without a change of raiment?" — are now re- membered with indulgence, and Quinny's trite interpolations are recalled with great abatement of displeasure This rock-bound home, though not my birth place, was the only home that I could well re- member ; and at a distance of many miles, and many years, remembrance still adheres to it. I see our cottage in the deep ravine ; the old pear-tree shadowing the pond in which our merry ducklings floated; the boreen winding through the pass, the patch of meadow-land that pastured Lanty Maw; the byre and stack- yard, the turf bank and potato-ridge which furnished labour to our needy clansmen. I see our study window, its diamond panes and lead- en frame work; the narrow path, bordered by luxuriant broom which led through a green paddock to a mountain gap, a rent you would have thought was made for cur convenience ; it gave us prospect of a bay locked in by isles THE INTERDICT. "21 and rugged hills, a seeming lake, whose waters, ( clear as sky, blend earth and heaven in one imagery ." Beyond the gap a grassy tongue of land forced itself into the bay, as if eager to meet the babbling wavelets, while these, in turn, seemed with like affection to embrace the little headland and rippled lovingly beneath the c Doling shadow of the alders that spread their sheltering arms on either bank. To stand upon the peak which towers above this point and look towards the bulwarks of the glen,' yon might imagine that volcanic fury had heaved up from earth's buried store, the shattered monuments of a former world, to choke up the little estuary. You might picture the chaotic tumult at its height ; deep chasms angrily ex- plode t their rock- artillery ; a sea of molten granite rolls on heavily ; the flood is now up- reared to spread around its desolating tide ; when lo ! the resistless voice — i£ Be still !" — The surging waves are fixed and frozen into stone ; patches of heath peep forth to beautify the rugged fissures, and giant masses are ce- mented, and forced to circle in, and to defend 22 THE INTERDICT. from future tempest, this rescued armlet of the sea, this lonely, lovely inlet, now securely guarded by its frowning sentinels. But its sweetest charm is lost, (sweetest at least to me,) its complete seclusion, its silence, undisturbed except by chartered guests ; the wild children of the soil, the tenants of the heath-crowned hills. The fame of this glen has reached the multitude, and the kindly spirit of its owner has opened paths to its re- cesses ; morasses are reclaimed; plantations fringe the precipices ; causeways and roads, (these levellers of barbarism and romance,) are even now projecting ; and we may one day see gay barouchettes and sociables, where formerly steep, narrow bridle-paths threw their unsocial, undiverging lines over bog and mountain ; break-neck, swampy tracks, often devoted by Slauveen to the patching of Phil McGun, a giant engineer of wizard skill, reported to use spinsters' skulls for paving stones. These malisons commenced whenever he looked for- ward to convoying Quinilla to the brazier's city residence, a toilsome three day's journey of many halts, esteemed a penance by the in- THE INTERDICT. 23 glorious Squire, and not much relished by his co-sufferer Lanty Maw. Such were the defences which in Quinilla's day of juvenility preserved the glen and its inhabitants in primeval wildness and seclusion ; and even when my sisters and myself emerged from childhood, the adventurers were few who broke upon the quiet of our dell, although a rude carriage road had then been formed. Sometimes a boat with a solitary stranger might be descried rounding the little island that shut us from a larger bay of which ours was but an armlet. Sometimes Slauveen would make a shining wonder of being asked the road to " vallis asperaj" We saw in fact no gentle-folk except each other, and heard of none except of the pigmy gentles, and Mrs. Bullock's highest bred particulars. My jubilees commenced with Quinny^s leave takings, which I looked forward to, with eager- ness intense. — Our cottage was too small to offer refuge from her clamour. The study, a parlour, a store-room, and a kitchen formed the lower range ; the upper was as circum- scribed; so that Quinilla's voice filled all 24 THE INTERDICT. the space around us — it battled with the atmosphere ! I had another reason for not loving her — she had no love for me ; and would now and then refresh me with some town-fangled jeer, significant of my infirmity ; nor was she more complimentary to Marion. Helen was the only one on tolerance, although Helen rebutted quite as vigorously as Marion our cousin's vulgar jibes directed at nty lameness ; but there was something in my younger sister that even fools were forced into respecting ; a calm energy of tone, an unpretending self-respect. It may be wondered how my placid uncle could harbour such a plague as Miss O'Toole, but had his wife admitted twenty plagues, bodied forth in twenty poor relations, my gracious uncle could not have mustered suffici- ent moral courage to dismiss them. This was the single drawback on our happi- ness ; bating the jostling of Miss O'Toole we moved on monotonously yet merrily within our little orbit, more occupied with the past than with the future, unless indeed with that futurity which is uuchangeable. To this our THE INTERDICT. 25 thoughts would often fly, and image Paradise ; my sketches of this after-state always described blue skies, clear lakes, and silence as profound as that enjoined by the Sage of Samos. I remember wondering, when a child, whether in the range of noiseless pleasure allotted to the just, books would be included, and whether, if the righteous members of the same earthly household were again to be united in a parti- cular location of the heavenly, there was any chance of Quinilla's admission to our fellow- ship. VOL. I. 26 THE INTERDICT. CHAPTER III. " With graceful ease the maiden sprung Upon the prancing steed, And round the youth her arms she flung, And held with fearful heed." Winter had expended its mists and storms and biting frosts. Spring was advancing. The sparry cone of Sugar -loaf glittered like frost- work. The snow had vanished from the rocks and dells, which, now displayed a budding carpet of feathery heaths, sea-pinks, and mosses. Lizards, goats, and glen-boys, rejoic- ing left their coverts ; the Fairies, eager for midnight revel, issued forth in hurtling crowds, THE INTERDICT. 27 to seize upon a moon-beam; — but none of brute, or human, or mixed essence rejoiced half as much as I did ; for Quinny's city season was approaching ! — in two days she would depart ! — I sat whole hours absorbed in reveries of delicious longing ; my tremors ceased ; my head no longer ached. — Quinilla spoke in tender semi-tones, shut up within her especial snug- gery, discoursing her apparel. The robes were fitted on the fortieth time, meeting approval or reviling according as they suited her shape and her complexion. A ten years hoarded stock of bobbins, lace, and bugles, was brought out to add to the adorn- ment, because the occasion was quite particular. My sisters and my aunt were, in due time, summoned up stairs to the council ; indeed the taste of every one, including our maid Katy, my uncle, and myself, was at this important juncture held in requisition. I was so thunder- struck at her equipment that my utterance, (never flippant,) was cut off — a Oh my !" was all I said ; a clasping of my hands told the un- speakable remainder. Contrasted with Marion and Helen, Quinilla c 2 28 THE INTERDICT. moved a queen ; — their garments of blue cam- let fashioned by my prudent aunt, their un- tamed, unplumed tresses, lowered, for once, their charms in my esteem, and made me think, with Katy, that they " looked like nothin" next to Miss OToole. I thought of Cleopatra on the Cydnus. My uncle stared as if he did not thoroughly see into the subject ; — my aunt ejaculated — " Good gracious ! — why Quinilla!" — Marion changed countenance so often that you could not tell whether she was delighted, frightened, or confounded; and Helen hoped that such a mass of plumes and petticoats might not be found extremely troublesome. This more than ordinary embellishment our cousin had uncoffered to honor the majority of Theodore O'Toole, Esquire, her only brother, who had lately arrived at man's estate and like- wise an estate (entailed) of one hundred and forty pounds per annum. He had spent the first year's revenue and two months of his valuable life in seeing life in London, and was expected to revisit his patrimonial lands the coming Autumn, to which season Mrs. Bullock had requested Quinilla would prolong her stay THE INTERDICT. 29 in Cork. The merits of Theodore O'Toole, Esquire, were so elaborately imparted, that even my rapture at the prospect of this long deliver- ance could not ward off head ache. I slunk out unperceived, and tumbled over Patricius, who sat pondering pn the lower stair. He never heeded my descent head-foremost, but grum- bled out — "And so you went to see the raree- shew — my lady in full fig : she shan't fig me however !" "You would not circumvent your mistress, good Slauveen " — said I — " The Spartan boys never — " "Spartan/' he repeated ; " I'm neither Spar- tan nor soused-gurnet, to be made a laughing stock for Mrs. Bullock's shop boy." "Patience Slauveen, patience," I remonstrat- ed ; " the ancient Helots were much worse off than— " "He Lots are no affair of mine sir : my she Lot isn't matched by any man alive. Patience ershishin ! — they may talk o' patience who never felt tight shoes! — How soft she is! — look there ; them pumps were bought last year, and she shall buy my last years legs before I wear urn for her." 30 THE INTERDICT. " The Greeks wore soles and sandles," I sug- gested ; you can cut the uppers off Slauveen ; a thong will serve for sandals." " But Pm no Greek, and so I won't be span- celled, Master Walter." Slauveen was in his dogged mood ; if he de- termined that the shoes were short, no argu- ment of mine could lengthen them. Quinilla's jaunt might be postponed, perhaps put off entirely ! — He went on. "Pm to be harnessed with this like any garron, too, may be I am!" He jerked from his fob a red leather belt, with an appendant bright steel buckle cut in glittering facets, and dangled it contemptuously. Quinilla's pug, a brute she got from Mrs. Bullock, came barking and jumping at the buckle: Slauveen caught up the dog, and bound the belt around its mid- dle, keeping his victim passive by a sympathe- tic whine — "Every one that sees us stops to hiss us" he continued. 'Watch her wig/ will you says one — 6 watch her boots,' says two — * clear the way/ says three, 'her skirt's on fireP — and then the glen lads hallow 'fire, fire, fire!' till Pm downright 'shamed o'both of us and Lanty kicks up behind and spangles us wid THE INTERDICT. 31 spatters — I won't go, so I won't — Pll swear that Lanty Maw have got the staggers." In vain I coaxed and argued, Slauveen by kissing the back of his hand, affixed his irrevo- cable seal to the averment that he would nei- ther convoy Quinny nor her knapsack. While this debate was pending Miss OToole tested the accurate fit of each particular robe she drew from her repository : the whining of her tight-swathed favorite diverted her from the momentous question, whether a blue stomacher would match the canary gauze, then under revision. I marked the full pause in her illustrations, and tried to drag away the mulish whelp: even at the instant, severe in youthful beauty, Quinilla issued from her snuggery — " Is any body calling Master Walter ?" said Slauveen, " I'm bothered with a singing in my ears; it must be Katy sure; — comin' Katy" and off he stalked. ei Patricius," screamed my cousin, " back with yourself this moment : come back I say or — 9 > The culprit reappeared — " speak, " screamed my cousin — " answer — who put that waistband on my pug ?' 32 THE INTERDICT. ''Well/* cried Slauveen, surveying his pre- ceptress, and clapping his hands in ecstasy — "What a goivnd I what an enticing gownd Master Watty ! — Is that a curricle dress I won- der ? — bangs Madam Bullock's all to tatters I" " Patricius," said my cousin, touehingly ; " repent and speak the truth ; don't run ding dong to the deuce Patricius : — have you not scroogeduip that poor, dumb> speechless inno- cent ? — I'm always satisfied — as Helen says that Shakspeare says — with pure repentance — don't stand mum-chance — who put that waistband on my pug ? " "It wanted a bit of a stretch Miss Qninilla," said Slauveen; "it wouldn't meet at all at all ; and now I know it fits me nicely — see yourself/* he added, unharnessing the brute and girding his own waist with seeming satisfaction. Notwithstanding this magical suspension of hostility, I felt some odd misgivings touching Lanty Maw. Slauveen might still redeem his vow by gifting his Bucephelas with staggers. Two days, two mortal days, still threw their lengthy shadows on my sunshine — I was now, at seventeen, more covetous of noiseless pur- suits than even in my days of sickly childhood^ THE INTERDICT. 33 Quinilla had lately multiplied her powers of tor- menting by regaling us with pathetic recitations from the Speaker — the standard book at Mrs. Bullock's — A delicious summer hung upon Slauveen^s sincerity — it was a perilous hold ! — At night I stole into the shed which housed our eow and Lanty; I coaxed the sulky animal; I no longer blamed the tyrant who made his horse a consul : had I the power, if Lanty bore off his burden gallantly, he should be stalled an Emperor ! — there was no symptom of the threat- ened staggers — the next night came, and passed away — the animal shewed no illness, but ill- humour. He was duly harnessed and led up to the door. I stood on tenter-hooks with my anxious sisters. The errant-lad was seated; the luggage-pack was carefully strapped on; Maw stretched out his long neck and snorted ; the damsel mounted ; Maw kicked, and kicked as he had never kicked before ; Quinilla caught at Slauveen's gorgeous waistband ; the belt gave way ; we screamed and Katy whooped — our cousin was sprawling in the duck pond ! Oh ! to depict the clamour consequent on this disaster ! — the elements of every jarring c 5 34 THE INTERDICT. horror seemed combined in one loud, length- ened diapason ! the frightened ducks kept up a chromatic qua-ake, Quinilla a sort of shriek- ing recitative, through which no element of speech could be detected, save u hound ! cheat ! humbug ! " applied to Lanty Maw, or to Slau- veen, or both. — Katy's contribution to the concert was given in pathetic touches from base to treble and back again — Pug barked inces- santly. The glen-boys, uproused by the din, came whooing and hurrooing to see iC what soort o* fun was goin' on," and lend a hand to make bad worse. The mountain echoes, or the fairies, took up the note. But high above every stentor of the chorus arose Slauveen's surpassing pillahi ! he roared as if a tiger rampant were before him, while Lanty Maw kicked ' fast and furious.' Lanty indeed was the only actor of the party ; no one attempted to fish Quinilla from the duck-pond ; the magnitude of the misfortune had paralysed all powers but the vocal : even the glen-boys, when once the game was under fair espial^ stood stock still, like other Irish boys in cases of emergency, content with adding their com- THE INTERDICT. 35 plement, to the aboriginal melody of Slauveen. Thus our cousin lay struggling in an omnium of fetid water, ooze, and duck-weed, not unlament- ed, though unaided — / could have wept my eyes out, but I was ague-struck and rooted to the spot. My sisters, finding they could not reach the sufferer, (who from injudicious floun- dering had floated from the bank,) and seeing us staring, shrieking, and inactive, fled into the house for succour. Slauveen was still astride on Lanty. This last, like one bewitched, kept echoing the plunges of Quinilla, perhaps incited by the unnatural concert. Even at this moment 1 am unable to decide whether the hardened beast performed his ruthless caprioles from fright, from wickedness prepense, or from the instigation of Slauveen. My aunt and uncle now came forward. " What's the matter Walter ?" said my uncle, " what is the matter ? — Is Quinilla hurt ?" " Is Quinilla killed ?— speak Katy !" said my aunt — a we can't hear our ears through all this clitter-clatter." " And sure she might as well be kilt as have 36 THE INTERDICT. her darling dress knocked down and murther- ed/' bellowed Katy. My uncle reprimanded our idle helps. Qui- nilla was hooked Gut, but her haggard plight awakened such compassion that a spontaneous repetition of the preceding chorus was elicited. — Katy thumped her breast,. Lanty recom- menced his outrageous plungings. Every fresh inspection of Quinilla's person drew forth a wilder ullaloo' y 'Twas like " the roaring of a thousand streams. " Turning to escape I espied two strangers at a little distance, curiously peering at the group^ which hung in diversity of attitude around the luckless Miss O'Toole. That these were of good degree was manifest, but I was dubious whether they belonged to Marion^s class of cavaliers or to Mrs. Bullock's. They bowed on finding they were noticed : I returned their courtesy and stammered an awkward explana- tion of the scene. My story did not meet the sympathy I had reckoned on ; they were not the least overcome by my description of the fall ; nay one of them, the handsomest too THE INTERDICTS 37 seemed very much inclined to laugh. From this behaviour I at once inferred that he at least, belonged to the mongrel gentry. Marion's cavaliers were noted for urbanity to maidens in distress, and no ancient heroine I had heard of, ever found herself in more distressful plight than did that unhappy one, who was now extended, apparently senseless, on the bank, her riding dress distilling the aroma of the ill— odoured poppy. An opening in the line of mourners gave her completely to our view. The handsome youth was choking with laughter ill-suppressed ; I reddened at this impertinence ; his companion with a rebukeful look, which rather tended to encrease the other's struggles, apologised. — They had been coasting round the bay, he said, and had been tempted by the beauty of the little cape which jutted from our dell, to land and to explore. A cry, which they had mis- taken for the national keene, had led them into the ravine : they were strangers, and hoped their error would be pardoned. There was something wonderfully pleasing in the young man's aspect who thus graciously 38 THE INTERDICT. tried to cover his companion's levity : the excess of my desire to say something extremely civil, kept me silent. Our conversation had been carried on at a short distance from the scene of wo ; the clamour had sunk into a buzz of objurgation at the unsusceptible Lanty Maw, who, now disencumbered of his freight, was passing his maligners, wisely betaking himself to the shelter of his stable from the thrashings he was menaced with. " Would nothin' sarve ye, you confounded brute," obtested Katy., " but you must fling the jewel, flump, into the muck-pond ? Pll be bound ye wouldn't fling yourself there, !" " Didn't I tell you," cried Slauveen, " the sulky garron would never stand that feather ? — Oh ! Miss Quinilla, Miss Quinilla, had you been said by me you'd ha' put the feathers up into the pack." K And ruined 'um," roared Katy — " they'd ha' been scrumpled all to nothin' !" " They're scrumpled with a vengeance now !" retorted he. — " We can't change the nature of a baste nor a plum pudding nor wiser than we are. Katy Mulligan : of all THE INTERDICT. 39 colours in the sky Lanty could never cotton much to scarlet ; split the feather ! it made him take poor Miss Quinny for a trooper." K Wretch \" cried Quinilla, starting from her trance and from the arms of my aunt and Katy, — " Nit of mischief ! — 'Maw took me for a trooper did he ? — Cheat, abominable cheat, you'll rue the day you loosed that buckle 1" " Crommell be kind to us !" ejaculated Slauveen, " she heard me through an' through the faint ! — I'd as soon ha' thought o J hearin the hair grow upon our cow's back \" At this turn of the catastrophe, which intro- duced Quinilla, viva voce, the rude young man leaned back upon a crag, pulled out a scented handkerchief and laughed until the tears cours- ed down his cheeks. I thought this barbarous, for our cousin looked quite shockingly— with- out her hat, her frills and curls rilling un- wholesome drops, her face begrimed ! there was one horrid smear which made her mouth seem double. The gentlemanly youth fain would have departed, but the other could not stand upright from laughter, while poor Quinilla gabbled like the ducks she had disturbed, and 40 THE INTERDICT. Slauveen, finding disavowal non-availing, stood reckless, blinking at the sun. Her rage was waxing fearful, and the young man's mirth encreasing in proportion, when Marion and Helen, who had been searching in my aunt's repository for a grand specific in hysterical or fainting fits, came flying to Quinilla. No word I know of can express the sudden smoothing of the laugher's features, or the gaze denoting more than wonder which he fixed upon my sisters, while they tried to soothe our cousin. But Quinilla was intrac^ table ; every fresh glance at her rueful riding dress, every reminiscence of her expecting Mrs. Bullock, every tender thought of Theodore O'Toole, Esquire, drew forth hot tears and hot reproaches.— " In three days I should have been in Cork — dressing for Mrs. McCarthy's drum ! — -Mrs. Bullock was to send her horse and earl and featherbed to meet me at the five mile bridge ; she will think that I am dead !" (i Or drowned in Lough na Paistha !" inters polated Katy. " Look at my habit, Helen— ruined ! — look at my hat — destroyed ! — Oh ! my feather, my THE INTERDICT, 41 feather, what an object ! — Look at my yellow boots — "Where's my pearl broach? — 'Twould fret a saint ! — Look at my frill too ! — Let me alone Miss Marion ; I'd rather be boxed, than be bothered to compose myself ! — my hat, my habit, my frill, my boots 1" — and down she sank despairing. At the touching enumeration of her losses — which I thought irremediable, and conse- quently considered the long dreamed of journey utterly hopeless — 1 was myself not far from shedding tears, and looked with some anxiety at the gentlemanly stranger for corres- pondent sympathy ; but to my amazement the rude one, now, appeared as deeply interested in Quinilla's woes as I was. He started from behind the point of rock which had partly hidden him and his companion, and with a demeanour quite respectful, yet looking also quite secure of welcome, he walked up to my uncle and announced himself without the slightest tinge or hesitation — His name was Sanford, his friend's was Fielding ; they were artists on a pleasurable and he hoped a profi- table tour ; their sketches of the bay and glen 42 THE INTERDICT. were just completed — they intended visiting a wild pass and lake which lay nearly in the route, the lady, (he bowed profoundly to Qui-. nilla,) had spoken of pursuing — they had hired a vehicle which awaited them at the other side of the bay, by which arrangement Cork might be reached in less time than she had named, would she condescend to accept their escort. My uncle, though looking at the suppliant, was busy with the siege of Potidea ; he col- lected his ideas for reply, but my aunt on this occasion thought herself entitled to be spokes- man. — The young man's offer was extremely civil, wonderfully civil, to people he could know nothing at all about ; he would excuse her, however, for demurring — she didn't doubt he was a respectable young gentleman — but — Here our cousin interposed with smiles and curtsies — She was so obleeged so very much obleeged : the generous proposal had sunk into her heart ; but the unlucky accident occasioned by her footman's negligence, had made her such a figure ! she blushed at being seen in such a trim ! — her only fashionable riding dress was unfit at present for the city. THE INTERDICT. 43 Here Katy thought her word would slip in aptly — Cork was the finest place on earth for scourers — two dips would send the skirts out o' the vat as good as new ; Miss O'Toole had better snap the young man's offer ; second thoughts were dangerous ; the drum dresses were safe, thank goodness ! in the luggage- pack ; Miss Helen would lend her a hat and cloak good enough to ride with picture sellers, this last was added sotto voce. While thus Quinilla and the cook haran- gued, I saw by the twitching of the young man's mouth that he was strongly tempted to another outbreak, but now I felt less angry. The gravest preacher of decorum might indeed have been moved to mirth at Quinilla^s softened tone and queenly gestures. Forgetting her extraordinary appearance, which Helen was vainly trying to improve, she simpered, curtsied, waved her hand, and made such odd contor- tions, that I imagined she had caught the quinsey. Meantime my aunt and uncle were in sober conference standing apart — " Strolling picture dealers !" said my aunt thoughtfully ; u he has by no means a poverty-stricken look 44 THE INTERDICT. — see how his companion stands so sheepishly aloof— there's something of a snigger I don't like — did you remark his shewy ring ?" " Ah Laura/' said my uncle, " I have known many a shewy fellow without a- sixpence." " True/' rejoined my aunt ; " he might be hungry, and all this palaver proceed from want- ing a good dinner." " Then give him one/' exclaimed my uncle, and walked into the house. My aunt approached the stranger, who during this debate had been politely overruling our cousin's faint excuses — She feared she might be troublesome — He vowed the trouble was imaginary ; he could without the slightest inconvenience accommodate the other ladies too, if nothing but the want of a conveyance prevented their accompanying their — mamma — the last word was uttered dubiously. Quinilla bridled — " cousin sir/' said she, a little tartly ; the blunderer apologised — Ci that discourteous mud had so disguised — " " You had better go into the house Quinilla," said my aunt, — " a pretty nose you've got ! — If you are bent on going, go to-morrow, and talk THE INTERDICT. 45 the matter over with the young man after dinner." The painter and Quinilla brightened at the invitation thus implied : she took his offered arm with a tender languid air, and tottered to the cottage. Marion, unconscious that the other arm awaited her acceptance, ran away. Wondering and rejoicing I hastened to include Fielding in the dinner invitation, better able to articulate, now that I understood he was noth- ing but a travelling picture-dealer. When my uncle joined us at dinner he seem- ed to have forgotten the occurrence of the forenoon, and looked at the strangers as if requiring explanation. My aunt nodded twice to indicate we waited for the usual thanksgiving: this he uttered with an abstracted air, so con- trary to the deep reverence with which he was accustomed to pronounce the name of God, that I regarded him with some uneasiness. His benevolence however soon prevailed over his transient discomposure : he was careful to supply his guests with the portion of the hungry, and listened complacently to the rattle of young Sanford, who replied with infinite 46 THE INTERDICT. humour and patience to the thronging ques- tions of Quinilla. She had, by direct inter- rogatory which no one could evade, ascertained that he was English, and had for cultivation of his talent visited Italy and Greece. I was longing to learn what town now stood upon the site of Sparta, but was foiled by our cousin. She was labouring to bring in Theodore O'Toole ; and something of London which fell from Sanford effected at last the lucky opening. By a rapid and masterly digression she led from the great metropolis to the young sprigs of Irish quality who visited London for pleasure or improvement. She ran through the whole history of Theodore O'Toole, Esquire, his birth, his breeding, his property entailed ; his descent from the ancient Tooles of Glendalough, his relationship to Sir Laurentius, his visit to Lon- don, his lavish expenditure, the expediency of nursing the proceeds of his estates, and his intended come out as a London fashionist at her friend Mrs. Bullock's. By this gratuitous confidence our cousin accomplished two ends ; she struck Sanford dumb at her family conse- quence, and displayed a fair sample of her THE INTERDICT. 47 copious, animated delivery — She concluded with a winning entreaty that her new acquaint- ances, during their Cork sojourn, would con- sider themselves at home at Mrs. Bullock's. All this time Fielding sat dumb as the dumb waiter, scarcely venturing to lift his knife and fork, suffering, (my aunt supposed) at finding himself stuck down among people so much above him. This suppose was addressed to Helen, whose attention had been hitherto en- grossed by Sanford's miscellaneous pleasant- ries. Self-convicted of neglect towards the unpretending guest, Helen, by addressing him particularly, sought to encourage him into the ease and confidence of his gay associate. But nothing could raise Fielding to the tone of his companion ; his replies were made with defer- ence, while Sanford entertained Quinilla with the freedom of a perfect equal, and with phrases so equivocal, that I could not make out whether he was making love or laughing at her. From time to time he cast a glance at Marion, who sat opposite, either to draw her into greater familiarity, or to enlighten her on his ambiguous addresses to Miss OToole. 48 THE INTERDICT. Marion however, though earnestly attentive to the words, seemed quite unconscious of the looks, and only once broke silence. Sanford was picturing the Bay of Naples : my uncle said something of Mount Pausilypus ; the young man as courteously submitted to his host's digression as to Miss O^Toole^s, and began to expatiate on the beauties of the mountain, when Marion interrupted him by anxiously enquiring whether it were equal to Slieb Ghoul, Even Fielding smiled at this national trait : his ready friend, with a meaning look and half bow, answered, "he had seen nothing any where which did not lose by com- parison with what he had beheld in Erin's fairy land/' My uncle now rose abruptly—" Take away Katy/' said my aunt — " these young men, I see, are anxious to be off. The strangers took the hint. Sanford made a final satisfactory arrangement with Quinilla, and departed with his friend, promising to be in attendance on the morrow. THE INTERDICT. 49 CHAPTER IV, ■* And has he then failed in his truth ?• The beautiful youth I adore !" I passed another sleepless night. Either ap- prehension had made me ungenerous, or there was really something in Sanford's manner, notwithstanding its plausibility, which justified my estimating his sincerity by the standard of Slauveen's. Of Fielding, who had made no profession whatever, my judgment was more favorable. I had agreed with Helen in think- ing there was a decorum in his shyness more to be depended on than the gloss of his com- panion ; he seemed, to be sure, as mystified VOL. I. D 50 THE rNTERDICT. as if he were regaling with Marion's aerial acquaintances, his humility encreasing with our condescension, while Sanford conversed with as much assurance as if he had been feasting with the glen-boys. — Marion had demurred at our sentence ; she could not ex- plain why, except that an excuse for confidence might be found in personal attraction. The one artist, she observed, was better looking, the other not so good looking as Walter. My aunt decided that Sanford was smitten with Quinilla, and that a few meetings at the Bul- locks would clinch the affair. My uncle had forgotten the entire incident, and seemed moon-struck when appealed to on the subject. Quinilla, by a Conscious simper, and an air of studied indifference, denoted that she had settled the business to her com- plete satisfaction, and Katy, inferring placa- bility from the softened demeanour of Miss OToole, when she lighted us to our respective dormitories hoped we would say a good word for Slauveen. " The creature," she added, " is starved with the grief— never took a THE INTERDICT. 51 morsel between his miserable teeth since the . morning, and has half murthered Lanty Maw \" I rose with the lark. The day was unpro- mising, and Sugar-loaf wreathed with a mist. Our breakfast was un-social — Marion looked anxious ; Quinilla's flights were restrained by the clouds : Helen, too busy to speak, was sedulously adorning with gumflowers her own plain straw hat. My uncle seemed conscious that things were not keeping their usual smooth course ; he swallowed his tea and retired to the study. My aunt fidgetted, push- ed away her cup and hoped the young men would come early. A doubt of their coming at all had occurred, it appeared, to none but myself. I withdrew to the window — Marion followed me. — u The haze thickens Walter ; it will rain, — I am sure it will rain/' I looked dismal. Marion rallied. — " Slau- veen however augurs a fine day : he quotes the ducks and pigs — their prelude to bad weather has not been given. — Look, there's a patch of blue V With a joyous laugh she turned to announce D 3 LIBRARY UNIVERSITY OF L- 52 THE INTERDICT. the happy omen, just as Fielding entered, followed by his friend. Involuntarily I echoed Marion's laugh, and rapturously shook the young man's hand, who looked startled at this warm reception. Quinilla was in a fever of delight ; she squeezed Sanford's hand as tightly as I did Fielding's, giggling — " And how d'ye do to day ? — how kind to be so punctual ! — I thought you'd never come — a lovely day — looks a little rainy — will you breakfast — do — we had best be off; — give me the hat Helen — what a dowdy ! — How the Bullock's will all stare ! — sit down — sit down — I'll just do my hair and be with you in a moment. — Sister, see that Patricius is in livery and ready to attend me." — Off she tripped. The change in the deportment of the stran- gers very much surprised me. Sanford hung back, and Fielding took the lead ; not indeed with the free tone of his companion, but with the bland address which had captivated me on our first encounter. The familiarity which in one stood forth offensively, in the other was modestly, I may say gracefully insinuated ; he saluted all with equal cordiality and respect, THE INTERDICT. 53 while Sanford, regardless of the mistress of the house, attached himself to Marion and Helen, venturing again, but more directly, to propose their accompanying Quinilla. Marion laughed in his face at the preposterous suggestion : Helen raised her eyes with an air of quiet astonishment ; my aunt returned thanks for his civility, but assured him the children never quitted home. One might have inferred from the stare of our new acquaintance that my simple aunt, instead of a reply, had propounded some abstract question. My sisters, in truth, al- though childlike, could scarcely be called children ; the younger, Helen, was my senior by a year. My aunt now introduced a string of injunctions respecting Quinilla, to which the self-elected escort was completely silent, but which Fielding promised to observe, very respectfully bowing to a vague intimation that the friendly Mrs. Bullock might be found a convenient acquaintance. In our commodious little dwelling neither bell nor gong was required to assemble the family, or call in the servants ; my aunt, from 54 THE INTERDICT. long habit, could at once pitch her voice to the exact note of summons for each of our circle ; she sounded a treble chord for Katy, a bass for Slauveen ; and the deep key now brought the Esquire upon the carpet. He appeared in a costume more than usually light, admitting air through sundry gaping apertures. The uncharitable would have surmised, from the uniform fashioning of the drapery into which his corduroy dittoes were torn, that they had been lacerated thus for effect, as also that, to compass some mysterious end, his countenance had been so obscured by bog-water or other indigenous dye-stuff as to lose its pretensions to the human. w What a pickle !" cried my astonished aunt. — " Put on your livery — make haste — * make haste Slauveen ; put on your livery." " ? Tis on/' said Slauveen. " On ! — and what tore it pray ?" " The cow/' said Slauveen. " The cow ! — and what blacked your face P* " The fright," said Slauveen. " The fright !— what fright ?" u Miss Gtuinny's — her clisasther took away THE INTERDICT. 55 my color ; Fm very poorly — thought myself the live-long night a bunch o' barley-corn an* Lanty Maw a munching me." " Rogue," said my aunt, * you can color a story still; put on Master Walter's cast-off pepper and salt — make haste.' 5 The dialogue now became serious; Slau- veen's every shift was worn out ; he was reduced to bare-faced disobedience, and stoutly declined attending our cousin. Miss Quinny couldn't want him to 'tend on her now she had two tight lads at her tail. Who knew but them painters would turn out a pair o* pick- pockets — Miss Quinny might afford a wrinkle in her character, but what had he to live on but his little bit o' character ? — he had nothing on earth but his character, and he wanted to keep it. My aunt, shocked at inuendoes which so shamelessly glanced at our guests, rated Slau- veen very roundly — I stole a look at them, anticipating their wrathful appendix, but they seemed diligently examining the carpet. Our recreant Esquire was twirling his thumbs, as if deeply impressed by my worthy aunt's homily, 58 THE INTERDICT. when Quinilla was heard — " Be careful of poor pug Katy — Does the cloak look shabby? ■ — The hat is rather motherly isn't it ? — Give Patricius the vallise." She entered with the prettiest flurried air imaginable, but recoiled, dumb-stricken, at sight of the betattered Esquire. — "Patricius !" she exclaimed. " Miss Quinilla/' drawled Slauveen, the corners of his mouth curving upwards like an idiot's— " did you want me Miss Quinilla ?"