with lots of flirting and favouritism, and a jolly little supper of broiled bones and whipt cream, and toasts and sentiments, with plenty of sly allusions and honest laughter all round the table.  But twice or thrice in the year the worthy couple made a more imposing gathering at the King’s House, and killed the fatted calf, and made a solemn feast to the big wigs and the notables of Chapelizod, with just such a sprinkling of youngsters as sufficed to keep alive the young people whom they brought in their train.  There was eating of venison and farced turkeys, and other stately fare; and they praised the colonel’s claret, and gave the servants their ‘veils’ in the hall, and drove away in their carriages, with flambeaux and footmen, followed by the hearty good-night of the host from the hall-door steps, and amazing the quiet little town with their rattle and glare.

Dinner was a five o’clock affair in those days, and the state parlour was well filled.  There was old Bligh from the Magazine—­I take the guests in order of arrival—­and the Chattesworths, and the Walsinghams; and old Dowager Lady Glenvarlogh—­Colonel Stratford’s cousin—­who flashed out in the evening sun from Dublin in thunder and dust and her carriage-and-four, bringing her mild little country niece, who watched her fat painted aunt all the time of dinner, with the corners of her frightened little eyes, across the table; and spoke sparingly, and ate with diffidence; and Captain Devereux was there; and the next beau who appeared was—­of all men in the world—­Mr. Mervyn! and Aunt Becky watched, and saw with satisfaction, that he and Gertrude met as formally and coldly as she could have desired.  And then there was an elaborate macaroni, one of the Lord Lieutenant’s household,—­Mr. Beauchamp; and last, Lord Castlemallard, who liked very well to be the chief man in the room, and dozed after dinner serenely in that consciousness, and loved to lean back upon his sofa in the drawing-room, and gaze in a dozing, smiling, Turkish reverie, after Gertrude Chattesworth and pretty Lilias, whom he admired; and when either came near enough, he would take her hand and say,—­’Well, child, how do you do?—­and why don’t you speak to your old friend?  You charming rogue, you know I remember you no bigger than your fan.  And what mischief have you been about—­eh?  What mischief have you been about, I say, young gentlewoman?  Turning all the pretty fellows’ heads, I warrant you—­eh!—­turning their heads?’ And he used to talk this sort of talk very slowly, and to hold their hands all the while, and even after this talk was exhausted, and grin sleepily, and wag his head, looking with a glittering, unpleasant gaze in their faces all the time.  But at present we are all at dinner, in the midst of the row which even the best bred people, assembled in sufficient numbers, will make over that meal.