"A pleasant fellow indeed." "Is he alive, sir, now ?" "I believe so, ma'am; but I hear the climate does not agree with him." "Ah, then, he's abroad! In Italy probably ?" "No, ma'am, in Botany Bay.

His brother, they say, might have saved him, but he left poor Tom to his fate, for he was just then paying court to a Miss Crow, I think, with a large fortune.

Oh, Lord, what have I said, it's always the luck of me!" The latter exclamation was the result of a heavy saugh upon the floor, Mrs.Bingham having fallen in a faint--she being the identical lady alluded to, and her husband the brother of pleasant Tom Bingham.
To hurl Mr.O'Leary out of the room by one hand, and ring the bell with the other, was the work of a moment; and with proper care, and in due time, Mrs.Bingham was brought to herself, when most fortunately, she entirely forgot the cause of her sudden indisposition; and, of course, neither her daughter nor myself suffered any clue to escape us which might lead to its discovery.
When we were once more upon the road, to efface if it might be necessary any unpleasant recurrence to the late scene, I proceeded to give Mrs.
Bingham an account of my adventure at Chantraine, in which, of course, I endeavoured to render my friend O'Leary all the honours of being laughed at in preference to myself, laying little stress upon my masquerading in the jack-boots.
"You are quite right," said O'Leary, joining in the hearty laugh against him, "quite right, I was always a very heavy sleeper--indeed if I wasn't I wouldn't be here now, travelling about en garcon, free as air;" here he heaved a sigh, which from its incongruity with his jovial look and happy expression, threw us all into renewed laughter.
"But why, Mr.O'Leary--what can your sleepiness have to do with such tender recollections, for such, I am sure, that sigh bespeaks them ?" "Ah! ma'am, it may seem strange, but it is nevertheless true, if it were not for that unfortunate tendency, I should now be the happy possessor of a most accomplished and amiable lady, and eight hundred per annum three and a half per cent.

stock." "You overslept yourself on the wedding-day, I suppose." "You shall hear, ma'am, the story is a very short one: It is now about eight years ago, I was rambling through the south of France, and had just reached Lyons, where the confounded pavement, that sticks up like pears, with the point upwards, had compelled me to rest some days and recruit; for this purpose I installed myself in the pension of Madame Gourgead, Rue de Petits Carmes, a quiet house--where we dined at twelve, ten in number, upon about two pounds of stewed beef, with garlic and carrots -- a light soup, being the water which accompanied the same to render it tender in stewing--some preserved cherries, and an omelette, with a pint bottle of Beaune, 6me qualite, I believe--a species of pyroligneous wine made from the vine stalks, but pleasant in summer with your salad; then we played dominos in the evening, or whist for sous points, leading altogether a very quiet and virtuous existence, or as Madame herself expressed it, 'une vie tout-a-fait patriarchale;' of this I cannot myself affirm how far she was right in supposing the patriarchs did exactly like us.

But to proceed, in the same establishment there lived a widow whose late husband had been a wine merchant at Dijon--he had also, I suppose from residing in that country, been imitating the patriarchs, for he died one day.