evening. This occurred about four months before the commencement of my
tale, and about five before the period fixed for the marriage; but, at
the time at which Lord Ballindine will be introduced in person to the
reader, he had certainly made no improvement in his manner of going
on. He had, during this period, received from Lord Cashel a letter
intimating to him that his lordship thought some further postponement
advisable; that it was as well not to fix any day; and that, though
his lordship would always be welcome at Grey Abbey, when his personal
attendance was not required at the Curragh, it was better that no
correspondence by letter should at present be carried on between him
and Miss Wyndham; and that Miss Wyndham herself perfectly agreed in the
propriety of these suggestions.

Now Grey Abbey was only about eight miles distant from the Curragh,
and Lord Ballindine had at one time been in the habit of staying
at his friend's mansion, during the period of his attendance at the
race-course; but since Lord Cashel had shown an entire absence of
interest in the doings of Finn M'Coul, and Fanny had ceased to ask
after Granuell's cough, he had discontinued doing so, and had spent
much of his time at his friend Walter Blake's residence at the Curragh.
Now, Handicap Lodge offered much more dangerous quarters for him than
did Grey Abbey.

In the meantime, his friends in Connaught were delighted at the
prospect of his bringing home a bride. Fanny's twenty thousand were
magnified to fifty, and the capabilities even of fifty were greatly
exaggerated; besides, the connection was so good a one, so exactly
the thing for the O'Kellys! Lord Cashel was one of the first resident
noblemen in Ireland, a representative peer, a wealthy man, and
possessed of great influence; not unlikely to be a cabinet minister if