Page:Castle Rackrent and The Absentee - Edgeworth (1895).djvu/39

Rh Honest Thady tells the story; you can almost hear his voice, and see him as he stands: "I wear a long greatcoat winter and summer, which is very handy, as I never put my arms into the sleeves; they're as good as new, though come holantide I've had it these seven years. It holds on by a single button round my neck cloak fashion. To look at me you would hardly think poor Thady was the father of Attorney Quirk. He is a high gentleman, and never minds what poor Thady says, having better than fifteen hundred a year landed estate, but I wash my hands of his doings, and as I have lived, so will I die, true and loyal to the family. The family of Rackrents is, I am proud to say, one of the most ancient in the kingdom." And then he gives the history of the Rackrents, beginning with Sir Patrick, who could sit out the best man in Ireland, let alone the three kingdoms itself, and who fitted up the chicken-house to accommodate his friends when they honoured him unexpectedly with their company. "There was such a fine Willaluh at Sir Patrick's funeral, you might have heard it to the end of the county, and happy the man who could get but a sight of the hearse." Then came Sir Murtagh, who used to boast that he had a lawsuit for every letter in the alphabet. "He dug up a fairy mount against my advice," says Thady, "and had no luck afterwards. Sir Murtagh in his passion broke a blood-vessel, and all the law in the land could do nothing in that case My lady had a fine jointure settled on her, and took herself away, to the great joy of the tenantry. I never said anything one way or the other," says Thady, "while she was part of the family, but got up to see her go at three o'clock in the morning. 'It's a fine morning, honest Thady,' says she; 'good-bye to ye,' and into the carriage she stepped, without a word more, or even half