me the reception rooms are all to be new furnished, and in the most
magnificent style.'

'At what a famous rate those Clonbronies are dashing on,' said Colonel
Heathcock. 'Up to anything.'

'Who are they?--these Clonbronies, that one hears of so much of late'
said her Grace of Torcaster. 'Irish absentees I know. But how do they
support all this enormous expense?'

'The son WILL have a prodigiously fine estate when some Mr. Quin dies,'
said Mrs. Dareville.

'Yes, everybody who comes from Ireland WILL have a fine estate when
somebody dies,' said her grace. 'But what have they at present?'

'Twenty thousand a year, they say,' replied Mrs. Dareville.

'Ten thousand, I believe,' cried Lady Langdale. 'Make it a rule, you
know, to believe only half the world says.'

'Ten thousand, have they?--possibly,' said her grace. 'I know nothing
about them--have no acquaintance among the Irish. Torcaster knows
something of Lady Clonbrony; she has fastened herself, by some means,
upon him: but I charge him not to COMMIT me. Positively, I could not for
anybody--and much less for that sort of person--extend the circle of my
acquaintance.'

'Now that is so cruel of your grace,' said Mrs. Dareville, laughing,
'when poor Lady Clonbrony works so hard, and pays so high, to get into