Two days after the last recorded interview between Lord Ballindine and his friend, Dot Blake, the former found himself once more sitting down to dinner with his mother and sisters, the Honourable¹ Mrs O’Kelly and the Honourable Misses O’Kelly; at least such were the titular² dignities conferred on them in County Mayo, though I believe, strictly³ speaking, the young ladies had no claim to the appellation⁴.

Mrs O’Kelly was a very small woman, with no particularly developed character, and perhaps of no very general utility. She was fond of her daughters, and more than fond of her son, partly because he was so tall and so handsome, and partly because he was the lord, the head of the family, and the owner of the house. She was, on the whole, a good-natured person, though perhaps her temper was a little soured by her husband having, very unfairly, died before he had given her a right to call herself Lady Ballindine. She was naturally shy and reserved, and the seclusion⁶ of O’Kelly’s Court did not tend to make her less so; but she felt that the position and rank of her son required her to be dignified⁷; and consequently, when in society, she somewhat ridiculously aggravated⁸ her natural timidity with an assumed rigidity⁹ of demeanour. She was, however, a good woman, striving, with small means, to do the best for her family; prudent¹⁰ and self-denying, and very diligent¹¹ in looking after the house servants.

Her two daughters had been, at the instance of their grandfather, the courtier, christened Augusta and Sophia, after the two Princesses of that name, and were now called Guss and Sophy: they were both pretty, good-natured girls one with dark brown and the other light brown hair: they both played the

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