"
"No, I won't," replied the savage; "an' not for you, at any rate. Come,
Miss Kathleen, out you'll go:--for you indeed," he added, in a ferocious
parenthesis, looking at Bryan; "it's you that's the cause of all this.
Come, miss, dance you must."
The words were scarcely uttered when M'Mahon, by a single blow on the
neck, felled him like an ox, and in an instant the whole place was a
scene of wild commotion. The Hogans, however, at all times unpopular,
had no chance in an open affray on such an occasion as this. The feeling
that predominated was, that the ruffianly interference of Philip had
been justly punished; and ere many minutes the usual harmony, with the
exception of some threatening looks and ferocious under growls from the
Hogans, was restored. Hycy and Hanna then went on with their dance, and
when it was over, the schoolmaster rose to depart.
"Mr. Burke," said he, "you are and have the reputation of being a
perfect gentleman _homo factus ad unguem_--as has been said by the
learned little Roman, who, between you and me, was not overburthened
with an excess of morality. I take the liberty, jinteels, of wishing you
a good-night--_precor vobia prosperam noctem!_ Ah, I can do it yet; but
it wasn't for nothing that I practised the peripatetics in larned Kerry,
where the great O'Finigan is not yet forgotten.
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