Jack went out, and in a second or two put his head back into the room
and called to me--“Green,” he said, “just step here a moment, there’s a
good fellow.” I went out, and there I found Fanny standing with her
brother.
“Here are the girls at their wits’ ends,” said he, “about your dancing.
So Fanny has put a boy upon one of the horses, and proposes that you
should send another line to Mrs. Meehan at Ballyglass. It’s only ten
miles, and he’ll be back in two hours.”
I need hardly say that I acted in conformity with this advice. I went
into Mr. O’Conor’s book room, with Jack and his sister, and there
scribbled a note. It was delightful to feel how intimate I was with
them, and how anxious they were to make me happy.
“And we won’t begin till they come,” said Fanny.
“Oh, Miss O’Conor, pray don’t wait,” said I.
“Oh, but we will,” she answered. “You have your wine to drink, and then
there’s the tea; and then we’ll have a song or two. I’ll spin it out;
see if I don’t.” And so we went to the front door where the boy was
already on his horse--her own nag as I afterwards found.
“And Patsey,” said she, “ride for your life; and Patsey, whatever you
do, don’t come back without Mr. Green’s pumps--his dancing-shoes you
know.”
And in about two hours the pumps did arrive; and I don’t think I ever
spent a pleasanter evening or got more satisfaction out of a pair of
shoes. They had not been two minutes on my feet before Larry was
carrying a tray of negus across the room in those which I had worn at
dinner.
“The Dillon girls are going to stay here,” said Fanny as I wished her
good night at two o’clock. “And we’ll have dancing every evening as long
as you remain.”
“But I shall leave to-morrow,” said I.
“Indeed you won’t. Papa will take care of that.”
And so he did. “You had better go over to Ballyglass yourself
to-morrow,” said he, “and collect your own things. There’s no knowing
else what you may have to borrow of Larry.”
I stayed there three weeks, and in the middle of the third I thought
that everything would be arranged between me and Fanny. But the aunt
interfered; and in about a twelvemonth after my adventures she consented
to make a more fortunate man happy for his life.
JOHN BULL ON THE GUADALQUIVIR.
I am an Englishman, living, as all Englishman should do, in England, and
my wife would not, I think, be well pleased were any one to insinuate
that she were other than an Englishwoman; but in the circumstances of my
marriage I became connected with the south of Spain, and the narrative
which I am to tell requires that I should refer to some of those
details.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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