People has been wondherin' what's become o' me at all, at all, bekays I haven'tcum to the front during the ilicshuns, an' gone round wid Sir George on his stumpin' tower. Well, avick machree, I've been so much taken up wid Molly that I couldn't get away, so I couldn't. I've a grate saycrit to tell ye, but ye mustn't braithe it to a livin' sowl, or I'll niver write a line for ye agin. Whisper, an' mind ye keep it dark. I've become the happy father o' two darlint twins since I wrote ye last, an' 'pon me conshinse, ther's not a proudher man in New Zayland this day, so thers not. All the nayborsdoes be sayin' they're the very spit o' ther daddy, an' begorra I think they're right, although I don't like the look o' one o' ther noses. The Markis has sint me a cablegram from Milbourne, congratulutin'me, an' Pat O'Rel has also sent his compliments. But revartin' to polyticks, bedad I'm plaised at the victhorys we're gainin' all over the counthry. Betchune you an' me, Sir George has to thank me for his successes, for sure it was I that rote his grand speeches, so it was. An' now whin we're in the full flush o' thriumph we can afford to be ginerous to our inimies; an' 'pon my sowl I'm sinsarely sorry for that poor divil av a Fox that got nearly hunted to death in Wanganui. Wid all his little iday-o-sin-crazies, he's not sich a bad soart o' fellowafther all. Many a night himself an'me slipp'd down from Bellamy's on the sly, an' popped up to Jack Maginnitty's on the Kay, just to have a small dhrop in the back parlonr. Now mind this is onthray noo (Frinch), for if the limplars wor to hear av it, begorra Sir William would have to be page 60 ray-obligated, so he would. I was so much annoyed be the news o' his defait that I jist sthruck off the followin' thrifle be way o' consolin' him:—