NOT THE MAN FOR GALWAY. 315 



to the paltry consideration of his residence, what was 

 it ? * God be with the time, when,* as her * lanxented 

 father ' said, ' a stranger remained for eighteen months 

 in Castle Toole, and would probably have lived and died 

 there, but that his wife discovered him, and forced the 

 truant to abdicate ; and yet,' she added, proudly, ' none 

 could tell whether he was from Wales or Enniskillen ; 

 and some believed his name was Hamerton, while others 

 asserted it was Mackintosh. But,* as she concluded, 

 ' when her kinsman, Mr. Bodkin, was turned out, it 

 was time for her to provide a residence,' and she flung 

 from the room like a Bacchante, making door and window 

 shiver. 



" Well, Sir, you may pity or despise me as you will ; 

 from that day my wife assumed the absolute mastery 

 and I calmly submitted. The house was now a scene 

 of wild and unrestricted extravagance. Tenants ran 

 away, cattle were depreciated, and worse still, claims 

 made upon the property that had never been foreseen, 

 and in nine months I was engaged in as many lawsuits. 

 I must have sunk beneath these calamities, but a domestic 

 event gave a new turn to my hopes. No heir had yet 

 been promised, when happily, it was whispered that 

 this blessing was not an impossibility. Day after day 

 confirmed the happy news, till at last it was regularly 

 announced in the * Connaught Journal,' that Mrs. 

 Dawkins, of Castle Toole, was * as ladies wish to be who 

 love their lords.' 



" Of course, from that moment any contradiction 

 would have been death to my dear Drusilla. She never 

 reigned lady-paramount till now, and her will was 

 absolute. Relatives trooped down in scores, and Marc 

 Antony was doubly cherished. Notwithstanding my 



