LIFE IN IRELAND 15T 



and is no more fitted for a joke than I am for a tight 

 rope dancer at the new drop.' — 'That,' says Lady 

 Demiquaver, ' is a truth. None ever thought you had 

 the smallest title to be an adept in dancing, but as you 

 seem to have an ambition for the situation of a dangler 

 in air, remember I am your foster mother^ and answer 

 for your sins.' 'Agreed,' said Brian Boru, and in 

 the hand of Lady Demiquaver, down he went to Belle 

 Vue. It is not likely that any one used to looking 

 upon the sea would admire Belle Vue, but still it had 

 its beauties, sweetly reclined in the shade. I have not 

 one word to say of the mother. She might, and she 

 may be, good, bad, or indifferent, for what I care. 

 What the devil has a common occupatioiier to do with 

 such things ? The lodge of her Ladyship was peculiarly 

 decent, and it could not be otherwise when her Lady- 

 ship attended to it, but the devil of it was that she 

 seldom attended to her word. This you may say, 

 gentle reader, is a mere trifle ; it is true it is so, but in 

 Life in Ireland it is a matter of much more than 

 general importance. 



I cannot say one word against Lady Demiquaver. 

 She imported to our heroes a crown of joy, and partook 

 of it. I will not say whether she partook of it in a 

 crown bowl of punch, or in a Highland reel, it was 

 much the same, and when the party mounted the 

 jaunting-car from Balbriggan to proceed to Dublin, 

 even Major Grammachree blessed the footsteps of 

 Lady Demiquaver. It is much to be wished that men 

 of sense and service like the heroes herein described, 

 should go forth to the world as they really are. But 

 d e it can't be done; they skulk behind the hot 



