Page:Daughters of Genius.djvu/392

 384 LADY MORGAN. plaining of a certain " odious Mrs. Anderson," who wanted her bill paid, and was " insolent " about it, and also of the landlady, who not only detained their piano, a hired one, when they wished to return it to the owners, but gave them warning to leave next week. Molly the dauntless defended the rights of her young charges, and the contest of words threatened at one time, greatly to their terror, to become a passage of arms. When this excitement was over the three sat down and indulged in a hearty cry, in the midst of which arrived M. Fontaine, Mr. Owenson's old ballet-master, and a devoted friend. He was in a carriage on his way to Dublin Castle, where he had recently been appointed Master of Ceremonies. "Poor darling old gentleman," wrote Sydney to her " dearest Dad," " I thought he was going to cry with us (for we told him everything), instead of which, however, he threw up the window and cried out, ' Come up then, Martin my son, with your little violin ' ; and up comes Martin, more ugly and absurd than ever, with his little ' kit ' ; and what does dear old Fontaine do but put us in a circle, that we might dance a chassez-d-la-ronde, saying, ' enliven yourselves, my children, that is the only thing ' ; and only think, there we were ; the next minute we were all of us — Molly, Martin, and Monsieur included — danc- ing away to the tune ' What a Beau your Granny is ' (the only one that Martin can play), and we were all laughing ready to die until Livy gave Molly, who was in the way, a kick behind ; she fell upon Martin, who fell upon his father, who fell upon me — and there we were, all sprawling like a pack of cards and laughing ; and then, dear papa, Fontaine sent off Martin in the carriage to the confectioner's in Grafton street for some ices and biscuits ; so that we had quite a feast and no time to think or be sorrowful." Better even than this, the merry and wise old French-