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Mrs O'Hara had known that he would coh it would be unfair to say that they aiting for him, it is no more than true to say that they were ready for hiain," said Mrs O'Hara

"Not lad than I am to find myself here once ht What will the grand people say at the Castle?"

"As I sha'n't hear what they say, it won'tup with disagreeable people"

"Was it pleasant last night?"

"Very pleasant I don't think Father Creech is half as good as Father Marty, you know"

"Oh no," exclaimed Kate

"But he's a jolly sort of fellow, too And there was a Mr Finucane there,--a very grand fellow"

"We know no one about here but the priests," said Mrs O'Hara, laughing "Anybody e was a little convent"

"Then I oughtn't to coners are ad after the poor seals again?"

"Barney says the tide is too high for the seals now We're going to Dru"

"What,--to those little rocks?" asked Kate

"Yes,--to the rocks I wish you'd both coo in one of those canoes all out there for the world," said Kate

"What can be the use of it?" asked Mrs O'Hara

"I've got to get the feathers for Father Marty's bed, you know I haven't shot as many yet as would ulls!"

"The poor innocent chickens and ducks, if you come to that, Miss O'Hara"

"But they're of use"

"And so will Father Marty's feather bed be of use Good-bye, Mrs O'Hara Good-bye, Miss O'Hara I shall be down again next week, and we'll have that other seal"

There was nothing in this So far, at any rate, he had not broken his word to the priest He had not spoken a word to Kate O'Hara that ht not and would not have been said had the priest been present But how lovely she was; and what a thrill ran through his arm as he held her hand in his for a land with such colour, such eyes, such hair, such innocence,--and then with so sweet a voice?

As he hurried down the hill to the beach at Coolroone, where Morony was to meet him with the boat, he could not keep himself from comparisons between Kate O'Hara and Sophie Mellerby No doubt his comparisons were made very incorrectly,--and unfairly; but they were all in favour of the girl who lived out of the world in solitude on the cliffs of Moher And why should he not be free to seek a here he pleased? In such an affair as that,--an affair of love in which the heart and the heart alone should be consulted, what right could any man have to dictate to hiland would have called wild, de perhaps to the Irish air and the Irish whiskey and the spirit of adventure fostered by the vicinity of rocks and ocean, appeared to hi but reasonable also No doubt he was born to high state and great rank, but nothing that his rank and state could give him was so sweet as his liberty To be free to choose for hie of man What pleasure could he have in a love which should be selected for hiave the reins to some confused notion of an Irish bride, a ho should be half a wife and half not,--whom he would love and cherish tenderly but of whose existence no English friend should be aware How could he e his spirit of adventure than by soement as this?