2l8 



AN OCTOBER ABROAD. 



rascal actually solicited a kiss. I expected this would 

 be the one drop too much, and that we should have a 

 scene, and began to regard myself in the light of an 

 avenger of an insulted Welsh beauty, when my heroine 

 paused, and I believe actually deliberated whether or 

 not to comply before two spectators ! Certain it is that 

 she yielded the highwayman her hand, and bidding him 

 a gentle good-night in Welsh, smilingly and blushingly 

 left the car. "Ah," said the villain, "these Welsh 

 girls are capital ; I know them like a book, and have 

 had many a lark with them." 



At Holyhead I got another glimpse of the Welsh. 

 I had booked for Dublin, and having several hours on 

 my hands of a dark, threatening night before the de- 

 parture of the steamer, I sallied out in the old town, 

 tilted up against the side of the hill, in the most ad- 

 venturous spirit I could summon up, threading my way 

 through the dark, deserted streets, pausing for a mo- 

 ment in front of a small house with closed doors and 

 closely-shuttered windows, where I heard suppressed 

 voices, the monotonous scraping of a fiddle, and a 

 lively shuffling of feet, and passing on finally entered, 

 drawn by the musical strains, a quaint old place, where 

 a blind harper seated in the corner of a rude kind of 

 coffee and sitting room, was playing on a harp. I 

 liked the atmosphere of the place, so primitive and 

 wholesome, and was quite willing to have my attention 

 drawn off from the increasing storm without, and from 

 the bitter cup which I knew the Irish sea was prepar- 



