NOT THE MAN FOR GALWAY. 309 



reached me, it is too faithfully chronicled on my memory 

 to be forgotten — ' The devil is an ommadazotiy no doubt ; 

 but he has money galorey and we'll make him do in 

 Galway ! ' As he spoke they rose, and passed into the 

 house without observing me. 



" What the observation of Marc Antony meant 

 I could not for the life of me comprehend. Part of it 

 was spoken, too, in an unknown tongue. Was 1 the 

 devil } and what was an ommadawn ? Dark doubts 

 crossed my mind ; but vanished, for Drusilla was more 

 gracious than ever, and Marc Antony squeezed my 

 hand at parting, and assured me, as well as he could 

 articulate after six tumblers of hot Farintosh, ' that I 

 was a lucky man, and Drusilla a woman in ten thousand." 



" Well, the knot was tied, and but for the Mat of the 

 thing, the ceremony might have been as safely solem- 

 nised at Margate. On the lady's side, the property was 

 strictly personal. Her claim upon the estates of the 

 defunct Field-Marshal was never since established, for 

 the properties of that distinguished commander could 

 never be localised. Marc Antony had been a borrower 

 from the first hour of our intimacy ; and on the morning 

 of her marriage, Drusilla, I have reason to believe, 

 was not mistress of ten pounds — but then, she was a 

 treasure in herself, and so swore Marc Antony. 



" The private history of a honeymoon I leave to be 

 narrated by those who have found that haven of bliss 

 which I had pictured but never realised. If racketing 

 night and day over every quarter of the metropolis, 

 with the thermometer steady at 90 ; if skirmishing from 

 Kensington to the Hay market, and thence to Astley's 

 and Vauxhall,with frequent excursions to those suburban 

 hotels infested by high-spirited apprentices, ' and maids 



