OConors of Castle Conor, County Mayo | Page 5

are you staying?" &c. &c. &c.
At Poulnaroe we found a fox, but before we did so Mr. O' Conor had asked me over to Castle Conor. And this he did in such a way that there was no possibility of refusing him--or, I should rather say, of disobeying him. For his invitation came quite in the tone of a command.
"You'll come to us of course when the day is over--and let me see; we're near Ballyglass now, but the run will be right away in our direction. Just send word for them to send your things to Castle Conor."
"But they're all about, and unpacked," said I.
"Never mind. Write a note and say what you want now, and go and get the rest to-morrow yourself. Here, Patsey!--Patsey! run into Ballyglass for this gentleman at once. Now don't be long, for the chances are we shall find here." And then, after giving some further hurried instructions he left me to write a line in pencil to the innkeeper's wife on the back of a ditch.
This I accordingly did. "Send my small portmanteau," I said, "and all my black dress clothes, and shirts, and socks, and all that, and above all my dressing things which are on the little table, and the satin neck-handkerchief, and whatever you do, mind you send my PUMPS;" and I underscored the latter word; for Jack O'Conor, when his father left me, went on pressing the invitation. "My sisters are going to get up a dance," said he; "and if you are fond of that kind of things perhaps we can amuse you." Now in those days I was very fond of dancing--and very fond of young ladies too, and therefore glad enough to learn that Tom O'Conor had daughters as well as sons. On this account I was very particular in underscoring the word pumps.
"And hurry, you young divil," Jack O'Conor said to Patsey.
"I have told him to take the portmanteau over on a car," said I.
"All right; then you'll find it there on our arrival."
We had an excellent run, in which I may make bold to say that I did not acquit myself badly. I stuck very close to the hounds, as did the whole of the O'Conor brood; and when the fellow contrived to earth himself, as he did, I received those compliments on my horse, which is the most approved praise which one fox-hunter ever gives to another.
"We'll buy that fellow of you before we let you go," said Peter, the youngest son.
"I advise you to look sharp after your money if you sell him to my brother," said Jack.
And then we trotted slowly off to Castle Conor, which, however, was by no means near to us. "We have ten miles to go;--good Irish miles," said the father. "I don't know that I ever remember a fox from Poulnaroe taking that line before."
"He wasn't a Poulnaroe fox," said Peter.
"I don't know that;" said Jack; and then they debated that question hotly.
Our horses were very tired, and it was late before we reached Mr. O'Conor's house. That getting home from hunting with a thoroughly weary animal, who has no longer sympathy or example to carry him on, is very tedious work. In the present instance I had company with me; but when a man is alone, when his horse toes at every ten steps, when the night is dark and the rain pouring, and there are yet eight miles of road to be conquered,--at such time a man is almost apt to swear that he will give up hunting.
At last we were in the Castle Conor stable yard;--for we had approached the house by some back way; and as we entered the house by a door leading through a wilderness of back passages, Mr. O'Conor said out loud, "Now, boys, remember I sit down to dinner in twenty minutes." And then turning expressly to me, he laid his hand kindly upon my shoulder and said, "I hope you will make yourself quite at home at Castle Conor, and whatever you do, don't keep us waiting for dinner. You can dress in twenty minutes, I suppose?"
"In ten!" said I, glibly.
"That's well. Jack and Peter will show you your room," and so he turned away and left us.
My two young friends made their way into the great hall, and thence into the drawing-room, and I followed them. We were all dressed in pink, and had waded deep through bog and mud. I did not exactly know whither I was being led in this guise, but I soon found myself in the presence of two young ladies, and of a girl about thirteen years of age.
"My sisters," said Jack, introducing me very laconically; "Miss O'Conor, Miss Kate O'Conor, Miss Tizzy O'Conor."
"My name is not Tizzy," said the younger;