"Is it me wait! an' bid not?

Well, that flogs all that whin I'm sent of a errind cums back an' all before a'most I'm gone."

In an inconceivably short time Barney did return, breathless, from the haste he had made to oblige his young mistress, and to bring her the intelligence, that in the superabundance of his sagacity, he judged had formed the real purport of his mission.

"You are sure you left the parcel properly? Did you see Mr. Layton's servant?" inquired Fanny.

"I did, Miss, his own man; an' give him de books, an' sed your complements, an' 'ud be glad to know how he did to-day."

"How very stupid! Did I not tell you not to wait at all?"

"No more I did n't wait, Miss, an' run ivery fut o' the way home I did; an' sed I could n't be no manes cum in, tho' he was mighty perlite, I will say, an' wanted me go down de while he'd see had his master any message back; but I told him I had pertickler orders to cum back immadiately, wid de answer-an' would n't, nor did n't, go in; oney sed I was sorry to hear de gentleman was sick."

"How very provoking!" exclaimed the irri

tated Fanny. "Just as if I had sent to inquire how he bore his disappointment!"

"Any thing more is there I can do, Miss?" inquired the boy. "An' somehow, be de powers, I b'lieve I have n't dun right ayther this time." "No matter! you cannot undo it now. may go."

You

"Stupid booby!" was the irrepressible ejaculation which escaped the lips of Fanny Stapleton. as the door closed on the offender.

CHAPTER V.

The Lady of Quality.

THE ease with which Barney had gained access to Lord Cork, and his astonishment at the splendour he beheld in the mansion of that nobleman, engendered a thousand vague and floating ideas in his speculative brain. He began to think it would be a fine thing to get a service in some noble family. He paid two or three subsequent visits to his friend and relation, Mrs. Garatty, every one of which had tended to lower his estimation for "city people," and increase that sensation (inherent with him) of extreme awe towards all those " of rale blood," as he expressed it.

Besides, his request touching Patrick's place in the Excise, had been received and complied with so smoothly, that his brother conceived, if he were actually resident in some family of distinction, he should not have the slightest difficulty in establishing his whole tribe of brothers and sisters in "less than no time."

He had sounded Mrs. Garatty on this subject; for, with all his ambition, the youth had no wish precisely to lose hold of his present situation, until secure of a better.

"What a fine thing it 'ud be now, Mrs. Garatty-if supposein' I'd any friend to help me to id-to git a place in some rale ould family, of de ould stock all out. I'm thinkin', sometimes, its bud a daler I'm livin' wid', afther all, an' niver had bud marchant's blood in his veins, an' niver can. Not bud he's de good masther, I can't gainsay that, any how, an' niver puts upon me, so he doesn't, an' why would he? an' me modher a Callaghan. Bud be what I can make on id, he's bin a risin' man iver an' always, an' his fadher afore him; an' I hard de cook say, her modher rimimbered of his gran'fadher keepin' a shop in Cheapside. So in coorse he's nothin' at all at all in de way o' descent an' that; an' as for Misthress Stapleton, wedder she'd iver a fadher or modher, though its like she'd both, de niver a hear I ever hard 'em mintioned, up stairs or down; inside or out; seed, breed, or generation; nor hasn't a banshee belongin' to 'em.-An' 'tisn't de bad misthress she is for all."

66

Ethen, Barney! Barney hould yer whisht. Is it a good bed an' boord ye'd be givin' up, man

alive? Consither what yees is about, yer sowl! an' doant be brakin' de hearts o' them as rared ye, an' flingin' yer praty to de pig, so don't."

Eych! Misthress Garatty, its no thought I have to lave me prisint sitewation widout I'd be gettin' one more to me mind, doant you see. Bud its up intirely, the city, so it is; an' all de mont's I bin in Finsbury Square, de niver a lord, nor even so much as a duke, I seen rap at our doore; an' meddent, maybe, if I'd stay as many years. So there! what use, why!"

"Remimber the home yees lift behint yees, Barney, avick! an' doant be temptin' Providence, so doant."

"I was just thinkin', Mrs. Garatty, if in case any thing 'ud fall in yer way in de thrifle o' gettin' me a futman's place, or that—"

"The Lord presarve me an' mine! A futman's place! ye upstart rapparee; its little yees noes o' futmen's places, or how they're cum by, I'm judgin'. Go yer ways home, Barney, a boughal! an' doant be afther cuttin' yer own blessid trote, so doant, 'till yees knoes where yees 'll get it mended."

Notwithstanding this pungent remonstrance, her visitor remained doggedly confirmed in his determination to "better himself" on the first