ABSTRACT
When Ormond returned, in obedience to Mrs M’Crule’s summons, he found in the room an unusual assemblage of persons - a party of morning visitors, the unmuffled contents of the car. As he entered, he bowed as courteously as possible to the whole circle, and advanced towards Mrs M’Crule, whose portentous visage he could not fail to recognise. That visage was nearly half a yard long, thin out of all proportion, and dismal beyond all imagination; the corners of the mouth drawn down, the whites or yellows of the eyes upturned, while with hands outspread she was declaiming, / and in a lamentable tone deploring, as Ormond thought, some great public calamity; for the concluding words were ‘The danger, my dear lady Annaly - the danger, my dear miss Annaly - oh! the danger is imminent. We shall all be positively undone, ma’am; and Ireland - oh! I wish I was once safe in England again -Ireland positively will be ruined!’
