Macnamara to give that absurd name to her
poor infant; whereat her ladyship, who had not thought of it since, was
highly diverted; and being assured that the babe was actually
christened, and past recovery Magnolia Macnamara, laughed very merrily,
kissed her lord, who was shaking his head gravely, and then popped her
hood on, kissed him again, and, laughing still, ran out to look at her
magnolia, which, by way of reprisal, he henceforth, notwithstanding her
entreaties, always called her 'Macnamara;' until, to her infinite
delight, he came out with it, as it sometimes happens, at a wrong time,
and asked old Mac--a large, mild man--then extant, Madame herself,
nurse, infant Magnolia, and all, who had arrived at the castle, to walk
out and see Lady Carrick-o'-Gunniol's 'Macnamara,' and perceived not the
slip, such is the force of habit, though the family stared, and Lady C.
laughed in an uncalled-for-way, at a sudden recollection of a tumble she
once had, when a child, over a flower-bed; and broke out repeatedly, to
my lord's chagrin and bewilderment, as they walked towards the exotic.
When Toole ended his little family anecdote, which, you may be sure, he
took care to render as palatable to Magnolia's knight as possible, by
not very scrupulous excisions and interpolations he wound all up,
without allowing an instant for criticism or question, by saying
briskly, though incoherently.
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