“Not know you? by the Lord I do, as well as he that made you, Hal;” why, I wouldn’t be acquainted with any man that I didn’t find out in speaking two sentences, or reading a couple of paragraphs of his letter. Well, then, although I know you these fifty years, I am at a loss whether to believe the whole, or the half of what I hear of you; to save you a blush (for I suppose you’ve learned to blush since you came to this immaculate country), I shall believe but half, and if you are but the tenth part of that half, by the Lord you are too good for a son-in-law of mine, who have been, however, half the while, little better than one of the wicked. Well, all’s one for that; heaven’s above all, and as we in the south say, “there’s worse in the north.” The cause of this saying arose from the hatred the southerns (especially the lower orders) had to the northerns, looking upon them as marauders and common robbers; and it was a common thing with nurses to frighten the children to sleep, by threatening them to call an Ulsterman. I remember this very well, myself. Now, if one man is speaking ill of another to a third person, that man will probably say, “Well, well, he is bad enough; but there’s worse in the north.”
“But hear, you yadward,” here’s a little bit of a thing here, that
runs out in your praise as if you were
| 514 | LADY MORGAN'S MEMOIR. |
For myself, here I am, “a poor old man, more sinned against than sinning.” Instead of being the “fine, gay, bold-faced vil—” no, I’ll change the word to fellow, I was wont to be—the very head and front of every jollification—I am dwindled into the “slipper’d pantaloon, with my hose a world too large for my shrunk shanks.” I deny this, for my feet and legs swell so in the course of the day, that I can scarcely get hose large enough to fit me; but this swelling goes off in the night. “Can’st thou not minister to a leg diseased? if thou can’st not, throw physic to the dogs, I’ll none on’t;” time, however, is drawing near, when it will be “sans eyes, sans teeth, sans everything.” With me, however, although “I owe heaven a debt, I would not wish to pay it before it’s due;” therefore, if I could get these legs well, and the cursed teasing pain in my head somewhat banished, I should not fear lilting up one of Carolan’s planxtirs, in such a style as to be heard from this to the Monterlomy mountains with the wind full in my teeth; for the old trunk is as sound as a roast, and never once in the course of a ten months’ illness, was in the least affected, therefore, “who is afraid.”
Sir Arthur and I will be left all alone
and moody in a few days, as our ladies mean to set off immediately
| BETWEEN CUP AND LIP. | 515 |
PS. You have worked a miracle—for eight months back, I never could take a pen in my hand! I really am astonished at myself now, bad as it is.
