294 LIFE IN IRELAND 



' Bedershin ! ' said Brian Boru ; and the company 

 loudly applauded this effusion of her Ladyship's muse ; 

 she had some playful ideas in her sconce, and she 

 never kept them in very long : she was an ' out and 

 outer,' and in point of fortune and fame had no more 

 occasion to belie her conscience, than the victim going 

 to the gallows without hope of reprieve. 



Lady Demiquaver had a very happy knack at im- 

 promptu ; and could we forget her little trifling foibles, 

 we might have thought her as virtuous as she was 

 pleasant \ but, in sober seriousness, she took no more 

 pains to hide her propensities than Sally Maclean ; and 

 as to her virtues, as far as charity is concerned, she did 

 not blazon them to the world, but hid them with a 

 miser's care. 



She was no boaster, and did good in secret, though 

 she made love in p2iblic : of the latter she was not 

 ashamed, of the former she was ; and used to say, that 

 she cared not what the world said of her levities, but as 

 to her charities, she would take care they never should 

 be found out. 



Here she acted upon a false opinion, for they were 

 sure to come to light, and be eulogised just in the same 

 proportion that her levities were stigmatised. Man- 

 ki?id in Ireland are not so bad but they can forgive a 

 great levity, when it has d, general good ioi its absolution. 

 In London we are not more severe, but more fastidious : 

 there is not a lady who sees Life in London, but 

 would be a dead weight upon Life in Ireland. 



Hypocrisy is the canker-worm that torments the 

 demireps of London ; it is not known in Ireland, or if 

 known, is at once trampled under foot, and crushed 

 without remorse. 



