NOT THE MAN FOR GALWAY. 319 



betrayed irrepressible disappointment and surprise. 

 ' And have you, Mr. Dawkins, really deserted your 

 company, and that, too, at a period when two gentlemen 

 had disagreed ? Do return immediately. Such in- 

 hospitality, I assure you, will never do Jor Galtvay.' 

 I did return ; but I had my revenge, and dearly it 

 cost me, though neither of the rascals were shot upon 

 my lawn. Smashall rode off my lady's favourite mare 

 in mistake, and sent her back next morning with a pair 

 of broken knees and Tom the Devil set fire to his bed- 

 curtains the same night, and nothing but a miracle saved 

 the house. Everything in the apartment, however, 

 was consumed or rendered unserviceable. 



" As I became more intimate with my wife's relatives, 

 1 found that nothing but the lamp of Aladdin would 

 meet their multifarious demands. Castle Toole, like 

 the cave of Adulam, was the certain refuge of all gentlemen 

 who happened to be in debt and difficulty. All that came 

 here were, what is called in Connemara, ' upon the 

 borrowing hand ; ' and when the sum appeared to be 

 too large to be forthcoming in cash, nothing could be 

 more accommodating in their overtures, They would 

 make my acceptance answer ; they would wish it at 

 sixty-one days ; but if it obliged me particularly, they 

 could contrive to extend it to three months. It was, 

 of course, a matter of mere form ; it would be regularly 

 provided for ; it would, ' upon honour ! ' If, after 

 all this, 1 hesitated, 1 did it on personal responsibility ; 

 and sooner than be perforated upon my own lawn, actually 

 suffered myself to be made liable for some hundreds. 

 When I complained bitterly of these spoliations to my 

 wife, I received the usual comfort, ' Dear me, how narrow 

 your ideas are ! If my uncle Ulic had asked you for 



