A sharp glance from the dark eye of the opposite counsel was the only reply, as he rose and left the room.
'Our friend has taken a more than common interest in this case,' was the cool observation of the last speaker; 'but there was no getting over Hanlon's testimony.' Here he entered into some detail of the trial, while the buzz and confusion of voices became greater than ever. I took this opportunity of making my escape, and joined Mrs. Rooney, who a short time before had retired to the drawing-room.
Mrs. Paul had contrived, even in the short space since her arrival, to have converted the drawing-room into a semblance of something like an apartment in a private house—books, prints, and flowers, judiciously disposed, as well as an open pianoforte, giving it an air of comfort and propriety far different from its ordinary seeming. She was practising Moore's newly-published song of, 'My from this world, dear Bessy, with me,' as I entered.
'Pray, continue, my dear Mrs. Rooney,' said I: 'I will take it as the greatest possible favour——'
'Ah,' said Mrs..Paul, throwing up her eyes in the most languishing ecstasy—'ah, you have a soul, I know you have!'
Protesting that I had strong reasons to believe so, I renewed my entreaty.
'Yes,' said she, musing, and in a Siddons tone of soliloquy, 'yes, the poet is right—
“Music hath charms to smooth the savage beast.”
But I really can't sing the melodies—they are too much for me. The allusion to former times, when King O'Toole and the rest of the royal family—— Ah, you are aware, I believe, that family reasons——'
Here she pressed her embroidered handkerchief to her eyes with one hand, while she pressed mine convulsively with the other.