family fool. Jack was not such a fool as those who, of yore, were
valued appendages to noble English establishments. He resembled them in
nothing but his occasional wit. He was a dirty, barefooted, unshorn,
ragged ruffian, who ate potatoes in the kitchen of the Court, and had
never done a day's work in his life. Such as he was, however, he was
presented to Captain O'Kelly, as "his honour the masther's fool."

"So, you're my fool, Jack, are ye?" said the Captain.

"Faix, I war the lord's fool ance; but I'll no be anybody's fool but
Sim Lynch's, now. I and the lord are both Sim's fools now. Not but I'm
the first of the two, for I'd never be fool enough to give away all my
land, av' my father'd been wise enough to lave me any."

Captain O'Kelly soon found out the manner in which the agent had
managed his father's affairs. Simeon Lynch was dismissed, and
proceedings at common law were taken against him, to break such of the
leases as were thought, by clever attorneys, to have the ghost of a
flaw in them. Money was borrowed from a Dublin house, for the purpose
of carrying on the suit, paying off debts, and making Kelly's Court
habitable; and the estate was put into their hands. Simeon Lynch built
himself a large staring house at Dunmore, defended his leases, set up
for a country gentleman on his own account, and sent his only son,
Barry, to Eton,--merely because young O'Kelly was also there, and he
was determined to show, that he was as rich and ambitious as the lord's
family, whom he had done so much to ruin.

Kelly's Court was restored to such respectability as could ever belong
to so ugly a place. It was a large red stone mansion, standing in
a demesne of very poor ground, ungifted by nature with any beauty,