On the evening of the wedding-day, about the hour of ten o’clock, Neal—­whose spirits were uncommonly exalted, for his heart luxuriated within him—­danced with his bride’s maid; after the dance he sat beside her, and got eloquent in praise of her beauty; and it is said, too, that he whispered to her, and chucked her chin with considerable gallantry.  The tete-a-tete continued for some time without exciting particular attention, with one exception; but that exception was worth a whole chapter of general rules.  Mrs. Malone rose up, then sat down again, and took off a glass of the native; she got up a second time—­all the wife rushed upon her heart—­she approached them, and in a fit of the most exquisite sensibility, knocked the bride’s maid down, and gave the tailor a kick of affecting pathos upon the inexpressibles.  The whole scene was a touching one on both sides.  The tailor was sent on all-fours to the floor; but Mrs. Malone took him quietly up, put him under her arm as one would a lap dog, and with stately step marched him away to the connubial, apartment, in which everything remained very quiet for the rest of the night.

The next morning Mr. O’Connor presented himself to congratulate the tailor on his happiness.  Neal, as his friend shook hands with him, gave the schoolmaster’s fingers a slight squeeze, such as a man gives who would gently entreat your sympathy.  The schoolmaster looked at him, and thought he shook his head.  Of this, however, he could not be certain; for, as he shook his own during the moment of observation, he concluded that it might be a mere mistake of the eye, or perhaps the result of a mind predisposed to be credulous on the subject of shaking heads.

We wish it were in our power to draw a veil, or curtain, or blind of some description, over the remnant of the tailor’s narrative that is to follow; but as it is the duty of every faithful historian to give the secret causes of appearances which the world in general do not understand, so we think it but honest to go on, impartially and faithfully, without shrinking from the responsibility that is frequently annexed to truth.

For the first three days after matrimony, Neal felt like a man who had been translated to a new and more lively state of existence.  He had expected, and flattered himself, that, the moment this event should take place, he would once more resume his heroism, and experience the pleasure of a drubbing.  This determination he kept a profound secret—­nor was it known until a future period, when he disclosed it to Mr. O’Connor.  He intended, therefore, that marriage should be nothing more than a mere parenthesis in his life—­a kind of asterisk, pointing, in a note at the bottom, to this single exception in his general conduct—­a nota bene to the spirit of a martial man, intimating that he had been peaceful only for a while.  In truth, he was, during the influence of love over him, and up to the very day of his marriage, secretly as blue-moulded as ever for want of a beating.  The heroic penchant lay snugly latent in his heart, unchecked and unmodified.  He flattered himself that he was achieving a capital imposition upon the world at large—­that he was actually hoaxing mankind in general—­and that such an excellent piece of knavish tranquillity had never been perpetrated before his time.