After a few flattering remarks on the pleasure something of mine had afforded him, he said, “You are very hard upon _us_, Mr Lever. You never let _us_ off easily, but I assure you for all that we bear you no ill-will. There is a strong national tie between us, and we can stand a good deal of quizzing for the sake of that bond.” I knew he was alluding to his order; and when I said something--I cannot remember what--about the freedoms that fiction led to, he stopped, saying, “Well, well! the priests are not angry with you after all, if it wasn’t for one thing.” “Oh, I know,” cried I, “that stupid story of Father D’Array and the Pope.” * “No, no, not that; we laughed at that as much as any Protestant of you all. What we could not bear so well was an ugly remark you made in ‘Harry Lorrequer,’ where--when there was a row at a wake and the money was scattered over the floor--you say that the priest gathered more than his share because--and here was the bitterness--old habit had accustomed him to scrape up his corn in low places! Now, Mr Lever, that was not fair; it was not generous, surely!” The good temper and the gentleman-like quietness of the charge made me very uncomfortable at the time; and now, after many years, I recall the incident to show the impression it made on me--the only atonement I can make for the flippancy. I had begun this story of ‘Jack Hinton’ at Brussels, but on a proposition made to me by the publisher and proprietor of ‘The Dublin University Magazine’ to take the editorship of that periodical, I determined to return to Ireland. To do this, I was not alone to change my abode and my country, but to alter the whole destiny of my life. I was at the time a practising physician attached to the British Legation, with the best practice of any Englishman in the place, a most pleasant society, and, what I valued not less than them all, the intimacy of the most agreeable and companionable man** I ever knew in my life, whose friendship I have never ceased to treasure with pride and affection. * A story told in ‘Harry Lorrequer.’ ** Sir George Hamilton Seymour.