“Faith! you don’t think so when he is here; he is not nearly good enough for you. You have always a pick out of him!” “I mean as a match!” “Such as an earl’s only daughter, with, say, ten thousand a year--oh, stop coddin, now!” “Barky, where _do_ you get hold of such horrible expressions?” “Anyhow, Ulick is in India,” he continued. “Shall I telegraph out to him, ‘Come home at once--Mary Foley is a peeress’?” “No, she is not a peeress--and you’re an unmannerly boor!” As she spoke, Mrs. Doran got up and pushed back her chair; and as she walked to the door, Barky gave a loud, unfilial laugh,-- “If ye were more civil to common folk, mammy, and less civil to the big ones, it would be better for us. Look at Aunt Nora, and the fine fortune you lost _me_! And now Mary Foley, and the great match you lost _Ulick_!” “How was I to know that the old bagwoman was your aunt herself, coming to spy on me?” she demanded passionately. “And would _any_ mother, in her senses, allow her son to marry a common country girl off the side of the road? Tell me that? When you talk such nonsense you drive me mad!” and she went out and slammed the door with violence. Mrs. Doran called in due state on Mary and Miss Usher. She sent up her cards in proper form. “Oh, it’s Mrs. Doran,” cried Mary. “Oh, miss, I don’t want to see her. I can’t _bear_ her; she makes me tingle all over, ever since I was a young one. ’Tis she is the hard bitter woman.” “Still, she is coming to start a fresh acquaintance, with a new Mary Foley, and you must receive her as one lady receives another.” “She’s no lady! and I told her so to her face!” The door opened as she spoke, and Mrs. Doran, in her best beaded mantle and feathered toque, sailed in, now all smiles and affability. “Well, Mary”--offering two hands--“this is indeed _great_ news. I am so glad, and I have come as your oldest friend, to offer my warm congratulations, and good wishes.” “Thank you, yer ladyship!” said the girl faintly. “Oh, _you_ are the ladyship now, Mary,” she rejoined, with an affable smile, “and this is, I presume, Miss Usher?” And as Miss Usher was only a legal woman, she bowed stiffly, and subsided into a chair. “And now do tell me all about it, my dear? No one can be more interested than I am, who have seen you all your life, and have met your own mother.” “It’s just this, yer ladyship--that I am not Mrs. Foley’s daughter at all, but a nurse child she kept, and made out was her own--and buried her girlie instead of me; and now it’s all come out.” “And are you immensely delighted?” “No, I am not; I’d sooner stay as I am, except for a few things. I’m not educated, nor fit to be a lady.” “Oh, you will soon learn, Lady Joseline,” put in Miss Usher. “It will all come quite easy; it is so much pleasanter to go up, than down.” Mrs. Doran stared at the speaker, and said, “And what are the few things you wish for most?” “Nice dresses, and books, and pretty things, and not having to wash clothes, and scour.”