The Collegians | Page 9

Daly, who
understood more intimately the nature of her son's reflections,
deprecated, by a significant look at her husband, the continuance of any
raillery upon so delicate a subject.
"Kyrle, some coffee?" said the lady of the house; but without being
more successful in awakening the attention of the young gentleman.
Mr. Daly winked at his wife.
"Kyrle!" he called aloud, in a tone against which even a lover's absence
was not proof-"Do you hear what your mother says?"
"I ask pardon sir-I was absent, I-what were you saying, mother?"
She was saying" continued Mr. Daly with a smile "that you were

manufacturing a fine speech for Anne Chute, and that you were just
meditating whether you should deliver it on your knees, or out of brief,
as if you were addressing the Bench in the Four Courts.
"For shame, my dear!-Never mind him, Kyrle, I said no such thing. I
wonder how you can say that, my dear, and the children listening.
"Pooh! the little angels are too busy and too innocent to pay us any
attention," said Mr. Daly, lowering his voice however. "But speaking
seriously, my boy, you take this affair too deeply to heart; and whether
it be in our pursuit suit of wealth-or fame-or even in love itself, an
extreme solicirtide to be successful is the surest means of defeating its
own object. Besides, it argues an unquiet and unresigned condition. I
have had a little experience, you know, in affairs of this kind," he added,
smiling and glancing at his fair helpmate, who blushed with the
simplicity of a young girl.
"Ah, sir," said Kyrle, as he drew nearer to the breakfast table with a
magnanimous affectation of cheerfulness. "I fear I have not so good a
ground for hope as you may have had. It is very easy, sir, for one to be
resigned to disappointment when he is certain of success."
"Why, I was not bidden to despair, indeed," said Mr. Daly, extending
his hand to his wife, while they exchanged a quiet smile, which had in
it an expression of tenderness and of melancholy remembrance. "I have,
I believe, been more fortunate than more deserving persons. I have
never been vexed with useless fears in my wooing days, nor with vain
regrets when those days were ended. I do not know, my dear lad, what
hopes you have formed, or what prospects you may have shaped out of
the future, but I will not wish you a better fortune than that you may as
nearly approach to their accomplishment as I have done, and that Time
may deal as fairly with you as he has done with your father." After
saying this, Mr. Daly leaned forward on the table with his temple
supported by one finger, and glanced alternately from his children to
his wife; while he sang in a low tone the following verse of a popular
song:
"How should I love the pretty creatures, While round my knees they

fondly clung, To see them look their mother's features, To hear them
lisp their mother's tongue! And when with envy Time transported Shall
think to rob us of our joys- You'll in your girls again be courted, And
I-- with a glance at Kyrle- And I go wooing with the boys."
And this, thought young Kyrle, in the affectionate pause that ensued,
this is the question which I go to decide upon this morning; whether my
old age shall resemble the picture which I see before me, or whether I
shall be doomed to creep into the winter of my life, a lonely, selfish,
cheerless, money-hunting old bachelor. Is not this enough to make a
little solicitude excusable, or pardonable at least?
"It is a long time now," resumed Mr. Daly "since I have had the
pleasure of meeting Mrs. Chute. She was a very beautiful but a very
wild girl when I knew her. Nothing has ever been more inexplicable to
me than the choice she made of a second husband. You never saw
Anne's step- father, Tom Chute, or you would be equally astonished.
You saw him, my love, did you not?"
Mrs. Daly laughed and answered in the affirmative.
"It shewed indeed a singular taste said Mr. Daly. They tell a curious
story too, about the manner of their courtship. "
"What was that sir?" asked Kyrle, who felt a strong sympathetic
interest in all stories connected with wooers and wooing.
"I have it, I confess, upon questionable authority-but you shall hear it,
such as it is-Now, look at that young thief!" he added laughing, and
directing Kyrle's attention to one of the children, a chubby young
fellow, who, having deserted the potato-eating corps at the side-table,
was taking advantage of the deep interest excited by the conversation,
to