To take medicines is an effectual way of gaining an old
lady's love. Ulick was soon established in her mind as 'a very
pretty behaved young gentleman.'
In the evenings, when Mr. Kendal read aloud, Ulick listened, and
enjoyed it from the corner where he sheltered his eyes from the
light. He was told that he ought to go to bed quickly, but after the
ladies were in their rooms, a long buzzing murmur was heard in the
passage, and judicious peeping revealed the two gentlemen, each,
candle in hand, the one with his back against the wall at the top of
the stairs, the other leaning upon the balusters three steps below,
and there they stayed, till the clock struck one, and Ulick's candle
burnt out.
'What could you be talking about?' asked the aggrieved Albinia.
'Prometheus Vinctus,' composedly returned Mr. Kendal.
Ulick's eagerness in collecting every crumb of scholarship was a
great bond of union; but there was still more in the bright, open,
demonstrative nature of the youth, which had a great attraction for
the reserved, serious Mr. Kendal, and scarcely a day had passed
before they were on terms of intimacy, almost like an elder and
younger brother. Admitted into the family as a connexion, Ulick at
once viewed the girls as cousins, and treated them with the same easy
grace of good-natured familiarity as if they had been any of the
nineteen Miss O'Mores around Ballymakilty.
'How is your head now?' asked Mr.
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