Ulysses
the company to excuse his retreat as the nurse had just then
informed him that he was needed in the ward. Merciful
providence had been pleased to put a period to the suffer-
ings of the lady who was enceinte which she had borne with
a laudable fortitude and she had given birth to a bouncing
boy. I want patience, said he, with those who, without wit
to enliven or learning to instruct, revile an ennobling pro-
fession which, saving the reverence due to the Deity, is the
greatest power for happiness upon the earth. I am positive
when I say that if need were I could produce a cloud of wit-
nesses to the excellence of her noble exercitations which, so
far from being a byword, should be a glorious incentive in
the human breast. I cannot away with them. What? Malign
such an one, the amiable Miss Callan, who is the lustre of
her own sex and the astonishment of ours? And at an in-
stant the most momentous that can befall a puny child of
clay? Perish the thought! I shudder to think of the future of
a race where the seeds of such malice have been sown and
where no right reverence is rendered to mother and maid in
house of Horne. Having delivered himself of this rebuke he
saluted those present on the by and repaired to the door. A
murmur of approval arose from all and some were for eject-
ing the low soaker without more ado, a design which would
have been effected nor would he have received more than
his bare deserts had he not abridged his transgression by
affirming with a horrid imprecation (for he swore a round
hand) that he was as good a son of the true fold as ever drew
breath. Stap my vitals, said he, them was always the senti-
ments of honest Frank Costello which I was bred up most