THE BREAKING UP OF THE PARTY. 383 



each one anxiously looking out for some 

 opportunity of showing his good- will, and 

 doing an infinity of mischief by way of making 

 himself useful. 



But the remarkable thing was (and in an 

 Irish assembly it was very remarkable in- 

 deed), that in all this there was no noise, no 

 shouting, no clamour of any kind. Men 

 spoke in whispers. The voices even of the 

 children were hushed. A stranger might 

 have supposed that they were awaiting some 

 national calamity, or packing a hearse in- 

 stead of a travelling-carriage. 



The only countenance in the whole group 

 that was in discordance with this general 

 gloom, was that of Mr. Thomas on the rum- 

 ble. For two weary months had this wretched 

 man and his carriage been laid up together 

 in ordinary at Ballyshannon, — strange crea- 

 tures enough, both of them, even there, and 

 stared at daily by the natives with a certain 

 degree of awe and reverence, but both utterly 

 incapable of existence in the atmosphere of 

 Belleek, which contained neither house large 

 enough for the vehicle, nor room magnificent 

 enough for the man. Jrtow that man had 

 existed at all so far from London, was a 



