to her mistress, saying that the fishmonger had kept the remainder
for an old account. 'And the more great big blundering fool you, for
giving the gold piece to him,' roared Mr. Fitzsimons. I forget how
many hundred guineas he said he had paid the fellow during the year.

Our supper was seasoned, if not by any great elegance, at least by a
plentiful store of anecdotes, concerning the highest personages of
the city; with whom, according to himself, the Captain lived on
terms of the utmost intimacy. Not to be behindhand with him, I spoke
of my own estates and property as if I was as rich as a duke. I told
all the stories of the nobility I had ever heard from my mother, and
some that, perhaps, I had invented; and ought to have been aware
that my host was an impostor himself, as he did not find out my own
blunders and misstatements. But youth is ever too confident. It was
some time before I knew that I had made no very desirable
acquaintance in Captain Fitzsimons and his lady; and, indeed, went
to bed congratulating myself upon my wonderful good luck in having,
at the outset of my adventures, fallen in with so distinguished a
couple.

The appearance of the chamber I occupied might, indeed, have led me
to imagine that the heir of Fitzsimonsburgh Castle, county Donegal,
was not as yet reconciled with his wealthy parents; and, had I been
an English lad, probably my suspicion and distrust would have been
aroused instantly. But perhaps, as the reader knows, we are not so
particular in Ireland on the score of neatness as people are in this
precise country; hence the disorder of my bedchamber did not strike
me so much. For were not all the windows broken and stuffed with
rags even at Castle Brady, my uncle's superb mansion? Was there ever
a lock to the doors there, or if a lock, a handle to the lock or a