“I’m sorry, you wasn’t in sooner, Darby, till you’d hear what Docthor Finnerty here—­God spare him long among us—­said of Denis a while ago.  Docthor, if it wouldn’t be makin’ too free, maybe you’d oblage me wid repatin’ it over again?”

“I can never have any hesitation,” replied the priest, “in repeating anything to his advantage—­I stated, Darby, that young Misther O’Shaughnessy was a youth of whom my opinion was decidedly peculiar—­keep basting; child, you’re forgetting the goose now; did you never see a priest’s boots before?”

“An’ nobody has a better right to know nor yourself, wherever larnin’ and education’s consarned,” said the father.

“Why, it’s not long since I examined him myself; I say it sitting here, and I believe every one that hears me is present; and during the course of the examination I was really astonished.  The translations, and derivations, and conjugations, and ratiocinations, and variations, and investigations that he gave, were all the most remarkably original I ever heard.  He would not be contented with the common sense of a passage; but he’d keep hunting, and hawking, and fishing about for something that was out of the ordinary course of reading, that I was truly struck with his eccentric turn of genius.”

“You think he’ll pass the Bishop with great credit, Docthor?”

“I’ll tell you what I think, Denis—­which is going further than I went yet—­I think that if he were the Bishop, and the Bishop the candidate for Maynooth, that his lordship would have but a poor chance of passing.  There’s the pinnacle of my eulogium upon him; and now, to give my opinion on another important subject; I pronounce both the goose and mutton done to a turn.  As it appears that Mrs. O’Shaughnessy has every other portion of the dinner ready, I move that we commence operations as soon as possible.”

“But Denis, Docthor? it would be a pleasure to me to have him, poor fellow, wid all his throuble over, and his mind at ase; maybe if we wait a weeshy while longer, Docthor, that he’ll come, and you know Father Molony too is to come yet, and some more of our friends.”

“If the examination was a long one, I tell you that Mr. O’Shaughnessy may not be here this hour to come; and you may be sure, the Bishop, meeting such a bright boy, wouldn’t make it a short one.  As for Father Molony, he’ll be here time enough, so I move again that we attack the citadel.”

“Well, well, never say it again—­the sarra one o’ me will keep it back, myself bein’ as ripe as any of you, barrin’ his Reverence, that we’re not to take the foreway of in anything.  Ha! ha! ha!”

Whilst Mave and her daughters were engaged in laying dinner, and in making all the other arrangements necessary for their comfort, the priest took Denis aside, and thus addressed him:—­