pervaded my aunt's manner, and even her
movements. More than once, on Mary's
observing that she ought to take another cup
of tea, because she had come in so very late and
seemed to have been so very far that day, my
aunt snapt her up hastily, declaring that she
had only been round the corner to rebuke
the butterman, or to exhort the laundress.
Twice also did I, in the course of my
professional duties, run against her in the
neighbourhood of the Treasury, and once found
myself face to face with her black reticule
and baggy umbrella at the entrance to the
House of Commons; but, a short and confused
account of business connected with "mee late
brother," and a recommendation not to
indulge useless curiosity, silenced me.

One August evening, more than a year
after the above-mentioned encounters, I
mounted the stairs at Number Five,
Hanbury Terrace, with a heavy heart. Messrs.
Pluckett and Maule had that morning
refused my modest request for an increase
of salary after five years' service, and had
insinuated a doubt as to whether they would
require my services much longer.

When I opened the door, my aunt, bolt
upright, was reading a letter, and Mary, her
bright hair a little disordered, was clinging
round her in tears. No sooner did they
perceive me than they both made a rush to
embrace me. My amazement was not soon
diminished; for, during several minutes, I
could distinguish nothing comprehensible in
their exclamations.

"It was a true word of Corrigan's, that I
ought to make use of mee relations; an old
stock like ours is sure to have some
influence," exclaimed my aunt.

"And you will be free from five every
evening, and have a fortnight's holiday to go
anywhere you like every year," whispered
Mary.

"Eighty pounds a-year to begin on, mee
precious boy," continued my aunt rapturously,
"and a certain rise— if you behave well
— (and there is no fear of ye), may-be to the
head clerkship and four hundred a-year, and
all through y'r poor Aunt Honoria."

After some urgent entreaties and skilful
cross-examination, I extricated the true state
of the case. The letter contained an appointment
for me in her Majesty's Hank and Wax
office, with all the advantages incoherently
set forth by my aunt and Mary. For this,
Miss Honoria M'Murrough had besieged the
eloquent member for Ballykillruddery, her
cousin the marquis, and every parliamentary
acquaintance of " mee poor brother," with a
pertinacity which she confessed that evening,
over a raking pot of tea, had but little food
for hope at the outset. " But, mee dear,
' nothing venture nothing have; ' so I went
on and on, through rain and storm, and
waiting-rooms and impudent flunkies, till,
what with old letters to mee poor brother
about his newspaper, and what with being
tired of the sight of me, and little Micke Brady
acting like a rale friend at last, I got the
appointment, and your fortune's made."

What a joyous confused tea-drinking!
What castles in the air! What overleaping
all intermediate steps! What arranging of
furniture in our future domicile, and settling
how my aunt should keep house when we
went on our summer tours.

In another year I was able to take my
pretty Mary to a cosy little home of our
own; where, before long, my aunt found
her presence so really useful as well as
welcome, that she yielded to our entreaties to
tear herself away from Number Five,
Hanbury Terrace, and to take up her abode for
the rest of her active life with us.

And this was — and is — the end of Number
Five, Hanbury Terrace, aforesaid.

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