'And is it true,' cried Jerry to Lady Gwyn, 'that she is the real mistress of this house?' 'Oh! certainly, certainly,' said her ladyship. 'Oh! certainly, certainly,' said the guests. 'Well, bad luck to me, if ever I believed it, till this moment,' cried Jerry. 'And why then won't your ladyship give it up to her?' 'Because,' answered she, 'the quiet surrender of an estate was never yet read of in romances.' ''Tis the only rational excuse you can assign,' said I. 'Dinner is on the table,' said the butler coming to the door. 'And so,' cried Jerry to me, 'you won't dine in this house till you are mistress of it?' 'Never, as I hope to see heaven!' answered I. 'And so,' cried he to Lady Gwyn, 'you won't make her mistress of it?' 'Never, as I hope to see heaven!' answered she. 'Why then,' cried Jerry, 'since one refuses to dine in it till she is mistress of it, and since the other owns that she ought to be mistress of it, and yet won't make her mistress of it; by the powers, I will make her mistress of it in two minutes!' So saying, he shouted some words in an uncouth jargon (Irish, I suppose) to my vassals, several of whom instantly darted into the house, others brandished their sticks in the faces of the guests; Jerry himself ran, lifted me from the barouche, and bore me into the hall; while the rest brought up the rear, and beat back the gentlemen who were attempting to rush between us and the door. Jerry set me down in the hall, where I stood motionless, while some of my domestics scudded, with merry uproar, through kitchen, parlour, drawing-room, garret; and drove footman, maid, valet, cook, scullion, and lap-dog, all out of the house. 'Now then,' cried Jerry, shutting the hall-door, 'your ladyship is in quiet possession for ever and ever.' 'Jerry,' said I, 'there is no knowing how this will end. But come into that parlour, for some of my people are making a sad riot there.' In we went; it was the dining-room, and to my great astonishment, I found about a dozen of my domestics already round the table, eating and drinking as if nothing had happened. In vain Jerry and I desired them to desist; they did not even seem to hear us. They laughed and capered, and tore whole joints with their hands, and swallowed the richest wines from the decanters. The rest soon flocked in, and then such a scene of confusion arose as struck me with utter dismay. And now, having glutted themselves, they ran to the windows, and exhibited the mangled meat and diminished wine to the dismayed eyes of poor Lady Gwyn. There she stood in the midst of her friends, looking like a bedlamite; and as soon as I appeared, she beckoned me, with the most frantic gesticulations, to open the window. I called the warden to my side, and flung up the sash. 'Let us in, let us in!' cried she. 'My house will be destroyed by these diabolical miscreants! Oh! let us in, let us in!'