The Real Charlotte, 93 



the Fitzpatricks at all. Tm no relation of the Fitzpatricks, 

 thank God ! My father's brother married a Butler, and 

 Francie's grandmother was a Butler too — " 



" It's very intricate," murmured Christopher ; " it sounds 

 as if she ought to have been a parlour-maid." 



*' And that's the only connection I am of the Fitzpatricks," 

 continued Miss Mullen at lightning speed, oblivious of 

 interruption ; " but Francie takes after her mother's family 

 and her grandmother's family, and your poor father would 

 tell you if he was able, that the Butlers of Tally Ho were as 

 well known in their time as the Dysarts of Bruff ! " 



" I'm sure he would," said Christopher feebly, thinking 

 as he spoke that his conversations with his father had been 

 wont to treat of more stirring and personal topics than the 

 bygone glories of the Butlers. 



" Yes, indeed, as good a family as any in the county. 

 People laugh at me, and say I'm mad about family and 

 pedigree ; but I declare to goodness, Mr. Dysart, I think 

 the French are right when they say, ^ hong song ne poo 

 tnongtir^^ and there's nothing like good blood after all." 



Charlotte possessed the happy quality of believing in the 

 purity of her own French accent, and she felt a great satis- 

 faction in rounding her peroration with a quotation in that 

 tongue. She had, moreover, worked off some of the irrita- 

 tion which had, from various causes, been seething within 

 her when she met Christopher ; and when she resumed her 

 discourse it was in the voice of the orator, who, having 

 ranted out one branch of his subject, enters upon the next 

 with almost awful quietness. 



" I don't know why I should bore you about a purely 

 family matter, Mr. Dysart, but the truth is, it cuts me to the 

 heart when I see your sister — your charming sister — yes, 

 and Miss Hope-Drummond too — not that I'd mention her 

 in the same breath with Miss Dysart — with every advantage 

 that education can give them, and then to think of that poor 

 girl, brought up from hand to mouth, and her little fortune 

 that should have been spent on herself going, as I may say, 

 to fill the stomachs of the Fitzpatricks' brood ! " 



Christopher raised himself from the position of leaning 

 against a tree, in which he had listened, not without inter- 

 est, to the recital of Francie's wrongs. 



