that you have lent him all the money you had, and the pension _in prospectu_ is too much for his feelings. I'll be down with you again as soon as I can, for I hate the diabolical town as I do poison. They have altered Stephen's Green--_ruined_ it, I should say. They have taken away the big ditch that was round it, where I used to hunt water-rats when a boy. They are destroying the place with their d--d improvements. All the dogs are well, I hope, and my favorite bitch. Remember me to Mrs. Egan, Whom all admire. My dear squire, Your's per quire, "_To Edward Egan, Esq. Merryvale._" MURTOUGH MURPHY. Murtough Murphy was a great character, as may be guessed from his letter. He was a country attorney of good practice;--good, because he could not help it,--for he was a clever, ready-witted fellow, up to all sorts of trap, and one in whose hands a cause was very safe; therefore he had plenty of clients without his seeking them. For, if Murtough's practice had depended on his looking for it, he might have made broth of his own parchment; for though, to all intents and purposes, a good attorney, he was so full of fun and fond of amusement, that it was only by dint of the business being thrust upon him he was so extensive a practitioner. He loved a good bottle, a good hunt, a good joke, and a good song, as well as any fellow in Ireland; and even when he was obliged in the way of business to press a gentleman hard,--to hunt his man to the death,--he did it so good-humouredly that his very victim could not be angry with him. As for those he served, he was their prime favourite; there was nothing they _could_ want to be done in the parchment line that Murtough would not find out some way of doing; and he was so pleasant a fellow, that he shared in the hospitality of all the best tables in the county. He kept good horses, was on every race-ground within twenty miles, and a steeple-chase was no steeple-chase without him. Then he betted freely, and, what's more, won his bets very generally; but no one found fault with him for that, and he took your money with such a good grace, and mostly gave you a _bon-mot_ in exchange for it,--so that, next to winning the money yourself, you were glad it was won by Murtough Murphy.