I could scarce repress a smile at the success of my bit of flattery, for as such alone I intended it, when she turned towards me, and, as if desirous to change the topic, said—
'Well, we heard of all your doings—your steeplechase and your duel and your wound, and all that; but what became of you afterwards?'
'Oh,' said I hesitatingly, 'I was fortunate enough to make a most agreeable acquaintance, and with him I have been spending a few weeks on the coast—Father Tom Loftus.'
'Father Tom!' said Mrs. Rooney with a laugh—'the pleasantest crayture in Ireland! There isn't the like of him. Did he sing you the “Priest's Supper?”' The lady blushed as she said these words, as if carried away by a momentary excitement to speak of matters not exactly suitable; and then drawing herself up, she continued in a more measured tone: 'You know, Captain, one meets such strange people in this world.'
'To be sure, Mrs. Rooney,' said I encouragingly; 'and to one like yourself, who can appreciate character, Father Loftus is indeed a gem.'
Mrs. Rooney, however, only smiled her assent, and again changed the course of the conversation.
'You met the Bellews, I suppose, when down in the west?'
'Yes,' stammered I; 'I saw a good deal of Sir Simon when in that country.'
'Ah, the poor man!' said she with real feeling, 'what an unhappy lot his has been!'
Supposing that she alluded to his embarrassment as to fortune, the difficulties which pressed upon him from money causes, I merely muttered my assent.