LADT MORGAN. 379 Later, the extremely young lady was herself brought in, and her health drunk standing with three times three, and the significant accompanying words, "Foghan Fah," or "wait awhile." It was an appropriate toast, for a ' while ' not very long raised the little Sydney Owen- son, who was thus cordially greeted upon her first appear- •ance in society, to a position where few of her early friends expected to find her. Robert Owenson was a gifted and hospitable Irishman ; the only son of Walter MacOwen or Owenson, a Con- naught farmer, and Sydney Crofton, the orphan grand- daughter of Sir Malby Crofton of Longford House. His parents had made an indiscreet and romantic marriage. They met first at a hurling-match, where Miss Crofton was the Queen of Beauty who awarded the prize, and young Owenson the handsome athlete who won it. A few weeks after, they ran away together and were mar- ried, but the union did not prove a happy one, and the bride, who was a woman of talent, consoled herself as best she could with music and poetry. So well were her efforts appreciated by the neighboring peasants that they nicknamed her Clasagh-na- Valla, or Harp of the Valley. Her eloquence, however, was of more practical benefit to her son, since a certain Mr. Blake was so impressed by her recital of the wrongs inflicted by one of his ancestors upon a long dead MacOwen, that he carried off young Robert to London with him by way of amends. After a time a love affair with a pretty singer brought the young man into disgrace with his patron, and he took to the stage to support himself. A few years later, following the family custom, he ran away with and married Miss Jane Hill, the sister of a college friend. It was from her father that Sydney Owenson, the name- sake of poor Clasagh-na-Valla, derived those brilliant and winning qualities that made her famous ; but it was her
