“Now, my dear friend, who will say, after all this, that the stage is the great school for actors? who ever saw on the boards of a theatre a more finished performance than that of Solomon M’Slime?  It so happens that I am acquainted with the whole circumstances, and, consequently, can fully appreciate his talents.  In the mean time I am paying a visit of business to M’Clutchy to-morrow, that I may have an opportunity of a nearer inspection into his character.  He is said to be an able, deep, vindictive, and rapacious man—­cowardly, but cruel—­treacherous, but plausible; and without the slightest remorse of conscience to restrain him from the accomplishment of any purpose, no matter how flagitious.  And, yet, the cure for all this, in the eyes of his own party, is his boundless loyalty, and his thorough Protestantism.  No wonder the church should be no longer useful or respected when she is supported only by such Protestants as Valentine M’Clutchy, and his class.”

“Thursday.—­At a little after ten, I waited upon this, famous agent to the Castle Cumber property, and found him in his office, looking over an account-book with his son.  He had a bad face—­black, heavy, over-hanging eyebrows, and an upper lip that quivers and gets pale when engaged even in earnest conversation—­his forehead is low, but broad and massive, indicating the minor accessories of intellect, together with great acuteness and cunning; altogether he had the head and face of a felon.  For purposes which you shall know hereafter, I declined presenting Lord Cumber’s letter of introduction, which I calculated would put the fellow on his guard, deeming it, more prudent to introduce myself as a stranger, anxious, if I could do so conveniently, to settle somewhere in the neighborhood.  The son’s back was towards me when I entered, and until he had finished the account at which he had been engaged, which he did by a good deal of altering and erasing, he did not deem, it worth while to look about him even at the entrance of a stranger.  Having heard me express my intention of looking for a residence in the vicinity, he did me the honor of one of the most comical stares I ever saw.  He is a tall fellow, about six feet, his shoulders are narrow, but round as the curve of a pot—­his neck is, at least, eighteen inches in length, on the top of which stands a head, somewhat of a three-cornered shape, like a country barber’s wig block, only not so intelligent looking.  His nose is short, and turned up a little at the top—­his squint is awful, but then, it is peculiar to himself; for his eyes, instead of looking around them as such eyes do, appear to keep a jealous and vigilant watch of each other across his nose—­his chin is short and retreating, and from, his wide mouth project two immeasurable buck teeth, that lie together like a’pair of tiles upon a dog kennel.  Heavens! that a beautiful girl—­as it is said everywhere Miss M’Loughlin is, and until now proverbially correct in her conduct and deportment—­should admit such a misshapen kraken as this into her apartment, and at night, too!  After having stared at me for some time with a great deal of cunning and a great deal of folly in his countenance, he again began to pore over the blank pages of his book, as if he had been working out some difficult calculation.