FORTIN, and then she'd go off like wildfire.'

'No, no, Terry, there you're out; Minerva has too bad a character for
learning to be a favourite with gentlemen,' said Lord Clonbrony.

'Tut--Don't tell me!--I'd get her off before you could say Jack
Robinson, and thank you too, if she had fifty thousand down, or a
thousand a year in land. Would you have a man so d-d nice as to balk
when house and land is a-going--a-going--a-going!--because of the
encumbrance of a little learning? I never heard that Miss Broadhurst was
anything of a learned lady.'

'Miss Broadhurst!' said Grace Nugent; 'how did you get round to Miss
Broadhurst?'

'Oh! by the way of Tipperary,' said Lord Colambre.

'I beg your pardon, my lord, it was apropos to a good fortune, which,
I hope, will not be out of your way, even if you went by Tipperary. She
has, besides L100,000 in the funds, a clear landed property of L10,000
per annum. WELL! SOME PEOPLE TALK OF MORALITY, AND SOME OF RELIGION, BUT
GIVE ME A LITTLE SNUG PROPERTY. But, my lord, I've a little business
to transact this morning, and must not be idling and indulging myself
here.' So, bowing to the ladies, he departed.

'Really, I am glad that man is gone,' said Lady Clonbrony. 'What a
relief to one's ears! I am sure I wonder, my lord, how you can bear to
carry that strange creature always about with you--so vulgar as he is.'

'He diverts me,' said Lord Clonbrony, 'while many of your