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His accint was proper an' his clothes didn't fit him right, but he was not bor-rn in th' home iv his dayscindants, an' whin he walked th' sthreets iv London he knew ivry polisman was sayin': 'There goes a man that pretinds to be happy, but a dark sorrow is gnawin' at his bosom. He looks as if he was at home, but he was bor-rn in New York, Gawd help him.
'Why did ye seek me out? he says. 'Because, says Willum Waldorf Asthor, 'I wish, he says, 'f'r to renounce me sinful life, he says. 'I wish to be bor-rn anew, he says. An' th' clark bein' a kind man helps him out.
"But I tell ye he's gone back. D'ye mind th' time we wint down to th' Coleesyum an' he come out in a black alapaca coat an' pushed into th' air th' finest wurruds ye iver heerd spoke in all ye'er bor-rn days? 'Twas a balloon ascinsion an' th' las' days iv Pompey an' a blast on th' canal all in wan.
Haven't I kept th' shopkeepers iv th' town beyant fr'm starvin' be thradin' with thim an' stayin' in this cur-rsed counthry, whin, if I'd done what me wife wanted, I'd been r-runnin' around Europe, enj'yin' life? I'm a risidint landlord. I ain't like Kilduff, that laves his estate in th' hands iv an agint. I'm proud iv me station. I was bor-rn here, an' here I'll die; but I'll have me r-rights.
'I don't know how th' Union'll feel about it, but that's no business iv mine, he says. 'Ye will get ye'er wur-rkin-cards fr'm th' walkin' diligate, he says; 'an' ye'll be entitled, he says, 'to pay ye'er share iv th' taxes an' to live awhile an' die whin ye get r-ready, he says, 'jus' th' same as if ye was bor-rn at home, he says.
I say 'tis diff'rent with Willum Waldorf Asthor. His orig-inal sin was bein' bor-rn in New York. He cudden't do anything about it. Nawthin' in this counthry wud wipe it out. He built a hotel intinded f'r jooks who had no sins but thim iv their own makin', but even th' sight iv their haughty bills cud not efface th' stain.
They was bor-rn with an aversion to society an' whin th' English come they lit out befure thim, not likin' their looks.
'Have ye committed some gr-reat crime? he says. 'Partly, says Willum Waldorf Asthor. 'It was partly me an' partly me folks, he says. 'I was, he says, in a voice broken be tears, 'I was, he says, 'bor-rn in New York, he says. Th' clark made th' sign iv th' cross an' says he: 'Ye shudden't have come here, he says. 'Poor afflicted wretch, he says, 'ye need a clargyman, he says.
An' th' ol' man'd take him walkin' on a Sundah, an' pint out th' rows an' rows iv houses, with th' childher in front gazin' in awe at th' great man an' their fathers glowerin' fr'm the windows, an' say, 'Thim will all be yours whin ye grow up, Dan'l O'Connell, avick. "Well, it didn't take an eye iv a witch to see that Dan'l O'Connell was a bor-rn idjet.
So ye see he was a natural bor-rn fi-nanceer. An' he begun to luk around him f'r what th' pa-apers calls a 'financee. "He didn't have far to go. I dinnaw how he done it, whether th' Ganderbilks asked him 'r he asked th' Ganderbilks. Annyhow, 'twas arranged. 'Twas horse an' horse between thim. Th' Ganderbilks had money, an' he was a jook. They was wan divorce on each side.
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